A WestJet plane from Toronto slid off a runway at Montreal’s Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport on Friday afternoon.
All passengers and crew are safe, airline spokesperson Richard Bartrem told CTV News Channel.
Bartrem said the Boeing 737-600 landed shortly after 3 p.m. in a “heavy rainstorm” and that “given the amount of rain that had already fallen … the flight crew handled themselves commendably.”
“We know that there was nothing physically wrong with the aircraft,” he added.
The plane stopped on grass approximately 15 metres from the end of the runway.
Passenger Greg Brown said the plane seemed to be moving more quickly than normal after it touched down.
“All of a sudden the plane veered off to the right,” he added. “A little bit of a ‘what if’ scenario was playing in my head.”
The plane then slowed and it was clear “we were not going fast enough that anything serious could happen,” he added.
Brown said the pilot apologized over the public address system as soon as the plane stopped.
At that point, according to Brown, many people got out their phones to text and tweet.
WestJet handled the situation “very well all the way through,” according to Brown.
It took at most five or six minutes for emergency vehicles to arrive, he added.
WestJet flight number #WS588 left Toronto Pearson International Airport at approximately 2 p.m. and was scheduled to land at 3:13 p.m.
Bartrem said he did not have a passenger count available but that the plane has 119 seats.
No WestJet flights were cancelled as a result of the incident.
Other flights at the Montreal airport were not affected.
