A Flair Airlines Boeing 737 Max jet aborted a landing at Montreal-Trudeau International Airport on Wednesday after a private jet unexpectedly remained on a runway where it was preparing to land.
The incident, which unnerved Flair’s passengers, occurred just hours before 67 people were killed at Reagan Washington National Airport when a military helicopter struck an American Airlines regional passenger jet mid-air in the worst U.S. aviation disaster in more than a decade.
The Montreal events were confirmed Friday by officials at Flair Airlines, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and NAV Canada, the private non-profit corporation that manages air traffic control at airports across the country and 18 million km of Canadian airspace.
The two government agencies and the airline said the sequence of Montreal events did not represent a “near-miss” situation and passengers were at no time in danger.
On the contrary, they said what happened in Montreal and how the aviation players responded in a coordinated way shows how well Canada’s aviation safety system worked to keep passengers safe.
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“There was no risk of collision,” NAV Canada spokesperson Maryam Amini said.
Flair Airlines Flight 1101 was flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Montreal-Trudeau and was on its final approach and preparing to land.
A Flair Airlines Boeing 737-800 jetliner (C-FFLC) airborne on take-off from Vancouver International Airport.
Bayne Stanley/The Canadian Press
The problem was a second aircraft which remained unexpectedly on the tarmac at the Dorval airport. It was a Bombardier Challenger 3500 corporate jet registered in Mexico, TSB spokesperson Nic Falco said.
The incident forced the Flair Airlines jet flight crew to scrub their landing, power up their two LEAP engines and increase speed and altitude while performing what is called “a go-around” above and around the airport. It was able to subsequently land safely when the Challenger jet left the area.
The Flair 737 flight crew followed instructions from the NAV Canada Montreal air traffic controllers after they saw the other aircraft remained on their intended runway.
“In this case, the aircraft ahead took longer than expected to exit the runway, which happens from time to time, and the controller instructed the aircraft to perform the normal missed approach procedure, which is a standard and safe procedure in this situation,” Amini said.
Added TSB’s Falco: “In this case, there was no violation of separation (of aircraft) standards, nor was there a situation compromising the safety of the aircraft. This was a go-around conducted in accordance with standard operating procedures.”
Falco said although the TSB was informed of the incident in NAV Canada’s daily reports to the government, TSB has not initiated an official investigative action into the matter. That’s because the two aircraft remained more than the minimum distance apart required under Canadian regulations.
Flair Airlines is a Canadian low-cost airline headquartered in Edmonton which operates a small fleet of Boeing 737 Max jets and Boeing 737 Next Generation aircraft.
