Vancouver International Airport (YVR) has shut down its north runway after a PrimeAir Boeing 767 aircraft overran the runway and wedged itself into muddy ground nearby.
A crew from Cargojet was aboard the flight, which overran the eastern boundary of YVR’s north runway at 1:45 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, the airport said in a statement.
“There were no injuries reported and the Cargojet crew of three were safely deplaned,” officials said.
“More than 50 people from various teams … are collaborating on a strategy to safely remove the aircraft.”
It’s unclear what caused the incident, but a team from Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) was deployed to investigate.
In the meantime, the airport rerouted all its flights to the south runway, officials said. About five percent of flights on Tuesday were delayed as a result.
“We will need to build, essentially, a road that will allow us to bring in the equipment that will allow us to extract the plane from its current location,” airport CEO Tamara Vrooman told reporters in a media briefing on Tuesday.
“What that will look like, exactly what it will entail, will require us to do some investigation on the site, but we will be on-site as soon as [the Transportation Safety Board] gives us the all clear.”
Air traffic control audio indicates the aircraft cited a “flight control problem” just before it exited the runway, according to media reports. The problem involved a mechanism on its wings used to slow the aircraft, per reports.
The aircraft was reportedly carrying about 10,000 kilograms of fuel, but did not have any other hazardous cargo aboard, according to air traffic control audio.
“There is no immediate estimate on how long this work will take,” YVR said in a statement late Tuesday evening. “The north runway will remain closed while the site is assessed.”
Your magazine gives a nice coverage of the RCAF for its 100 year anniversary but with one glaring omission – the years of the CF-101. From the mid ’60’s to 1985 this aircraft was Canada’s contribution to NORAD and it and the CF-104 in Europe were the only two nuclear armed aircraft in the RCAF, with the exception of the Bomarc. I flew the 101 for 7 years – 4 operationally and 3 instructing. I don’t know why but the F-101 always get very little mention. That’s my little gripe.