United Express plane goes off runway in Ottawa

[News_Editor]

United Express plane goes off runway in Ottawa

2011-09-05 10:05:34 GMT+7 (ICT)

OTTAWA (BNO NEWS) -- A United Express regional jet carrying more than 45 people skidded off a runway at Macdonald-Cartier International Airport in the Canadian capital of Ottawa on late Sunday afternoon, airline and emergency officials said.

The incident happened at around 3.29 p.m. local time when United Express Flight 3363, which originated from Chicago, was landing on runway 7. The flight was operated by Trans States Airlines using a 50-seat Embraer 145.

Aboard the aircraft were 44 passengers and a crew of three. "All passengers are accounted for and on an OC Transpo bus," said Marc Messier, a spokesman for the Ottawa Fire Services. "Crews reporting no injuries at this time."

Photos from the scene showed the front landing gear had collapsed. "Crews [are] reporting damage to [the] under carriage and [a] fuel leak under the plane," Messier said. "Fire crews are controlling the fuel run and the spill."

It was not immediately known what caused the accident, which will be investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB). "Trans States Airlines cannot speculate as to the cause of the incident," the airline said in a statement.

Late last month, twelve people were killed when First Air Flight 6560, a Boeing 737-200, crashed about five miles (eight kilometers) east of Resolute Bay, a small Inuit hamlet on Cornwallis Island in Canada's Nunavut.

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