Passengers aboard two Air Canada flights at Vancouver International Airport were delayed Sunday afternoon after the planes they were traveling on contacted the runway.
In an email, the airline said the incident occurred as an Air Canada Rouge Airbus A319 was being pushed backwards from the gate.
The Airbus wingtip “made contact” with a Jazz Air Canada Express Q400 aircraft that was parked at a nearby gate, the airline said.
No one was injured, Air Canada said, and customers are scheduled to fly to their final destinations on other flights later today.
Passenger Sylvie Barma was on board the Airbus around 2 pm PT, returning home to Quebec, when the incident occurred.
“We were hit quite hard,” Barma said from the airport, where he was waiting for his rescheduled flight. “We were worried for a few moments.”
Barma said that when he looked outside, he saw a piece of his plane’s wing on the ground. And when the planes were moved about 20 minutes later, she saw a piece of the Q400’s wing fall to the ground.
“We still received excellent service,” Barma said, adding that the pilot communicated what was happening. “The situation was well managed.”
Air Canada scheduled another plane to take the passengers to Quebec at 8:15 p.m. PT Sunday night, he said.
The airline did not say how many passengers were affected, but the Q400 seats about 75 passengers and the Airbus A319 seats between 120 and 156 passengers.
YVR confirmed that its fire and rescue team responded to the incident on Sunday afternoon and no one was injured.
On Friday, the airport said it expected 316,000 travelers over the long weekend.
