Air Canada flight skids and catches fire during landing at Halifax airport | Video

An Air Canada flight experienced a rough landing at Halifax Airport on Saturday (28 Dec) when its landing gear malfunctioned, causing the aircraft to skid and catch fire. No casualties were reported.

Here's what happened

The incident occurred around 9:30 pm AT involving Air Canada Flight 2259, operated by PAL Airlines. Following the incident, passengers were taken to a hangar for medical checks. The airport did not disclose the number of passengers on board, but one passenger estimated around 80 people were on the flight.

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Emergency response

The plane's wing scraped the runway, igniting flames that were quickly extinguished by emergency crews. All passengers and crew were safely evacuated.

Passenger recalls terrifying moments

A passenger told CBC News that one of the plane’s tyres failed to deploy.

“The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud — what almost sounded like a crash sound — as the wing of the plane started to skid along the pavement, along with what I presume was the engine," she said.

The plane veered off the runway for a "decent" distance as the pilots tried to stop the plane, she said. "The plane shook quite a bit and we started seeing fire on the left side of the plane and smoke started coming in the windows," she said.

(With inputs from agencies)