Air Canada

Canadair RegionalJet CRJ-100

Air Canada Flight 646, C-FSKI, departed Toronto-Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Ontario, at 2124 eastern standard time on a scheduled flight to Fredericton, New Brunswick. On arrival, the reported ceiling was 100 feet obscured, the visibility one-eighth of a mile in fog, and the runway visual range 1200 feet. The crew conducted a Category I instrument landing system approach to runway 15 and elected to land. On reaching about 35 feet, the captain assessed that the aircraft was not in a position to land safely and ordered the first officer, who was flying the aircraft, to go around. As the aircraft reached its go-around pitch attitude of about 10 degrees, the aircraft stalled aerodynamically, struck the runway, veered to the right and then travelled—at full power and uncontrolled—about 2100 feet from the first impact point, struck a large tree and came to rest. An evacuation was conducted; however, seven passengers were trapped in the aircraft until rescued. Of the 39 passengers and 3 crew members, 9 were seriously injured and the rest received minor or no injuries. The accident occurred at 2348 Atlantic standard time.

Douglas DC-9

The aircraft departed Dallas on a regularly scheduled international passenger flight to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with an en route stop at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The flight left Dallas with 5 crew members and 41 passengers on board. About 1903, eastern daylight time, while en route at flight level 330 (about 33,000 feet m.s.l.), the cabin crew discovered smoke in the left aft lavatory. After attempting to extinguish the hidden fire and then contacting air traffic control (ATC) and declaring an emergency, the crew made an emergency descent and ATC vectored Flight 797 to the Greater Cincinnati International Airport, Covington, Kentucky. At 1920:09, eastern daylight time, Flight 797 landed on runway 27L at the Greater Cincinnati International Airport. As the pilot stopped the airplane, the airport fire department, which had been alerted by the tower to the fire on board the incoming plane, was in place and began firefighting operations. Also, as soon as the airplane stopped, the flight attendants and passengers opened the left and right forward doors, the left forward overwing exit, and the right forward and aft overwing exits. About 60 to 90 seconds after the exits were opened, a flash fire engulfed the airplane interior. While 18 passengers and 3 flight attendants exited through the forward doors and slides and the three open overwing exits to evacuate the airplane, the captain and first officer exited through their respective cockpit sliding windows. However, 23 passengers were not able to get out of the plane and died in the fire. The airplane was destroyed.

Douglas DC-9

During the takeoff roll on runway 23L, at a speed of 145 knots, the crew heard a thumping noise and felt vibrations. In a meantime, the right engine power dropped and a warning light coupled to the right main gear illuminated. The copilot informed the captain about the fact that the right main gear was unsafe. At a speed of 149 knots, the captain decided to abandon the takeoff procedure and initiated an emergency braking maneuver. He deployed the spoilers and activated the thrust reversers systems. The airplane was unable to stop within the 1,219 meters remaining, overran at a speed of 70 knots, rolled on a distance of 139 meters then went down a 15 meters high embankment and eventually came to rest, broken in three. Two passengers were killed while 55 others were injured and 50 unhurt.

Douglas DC-8

Flight number 621 of Air Canada DC-8-63 CF-TIW with 100 passengers, six cabin air crew and three flight crew aboard on July 5, 1970 from departure at Montreal International Airport until its final crash at Toronto International Airport lasted slightly more than 52 minutes. This aircraft took off at Montreal at 07 hours and 17 minutes EDT, initially touched down on runway 32 at Toronto International Airport at 08 hours 06 minutes and 36 seconds EDT and finally crashed at 08 hours 09 minutes 34 seconds EDT. The flight from Montreal to Toronto was routine. The flight during this interval was also routine. The "In-Range Check" was made when the aircraft was about 10 miles from Toronto International Airport on a southerly heading. The "Before-Landing Check" was made when the aircraft was about 8 miles from this Airport, and just commencing its turn onto final approach. On this Before-Landing cockpit check, which includes the lowering of the undercarriage, the item "spoilers armed" was intentionally omitted. During this period there occurred a conversation between the Captain and the First Officer as to whether the ground spoilers would be armed 'on the flare' or 'on the ground' and an agreement between them as to this was reached. The agreement was that the First Officer would arm them 'on the flare', that is, immediately before the aircraft touched down on the runway. Power was reduced then on the aircraft for the purpose of the flare and the Captain gave the order to the First Officer by saying 'OK'; and immediately thereafter the ground spoilers were deployed. The spoilers were deployed when the aircraft was about 60 feet above the runway. As a result, the aircraft sank rapidly. Practically immediately thereafter the Captain, with an exclamation, applied full throttle to all four engines and pulled back the control panel causing the nose of the aircraft to rotate upwards. During this sequence the First Officer apologized to the Captain for what he had done. Notwithstanding the action taken by the Captain, he did not succeed in preventing the aircraft from touching down on the runway. Instead, the aircraft struck the runway very heavily. It remained on the runway only about half a second and then rose back into the air at which time the ground spoilers commenced to retract and then did retract. When the aircraft struck the runway, number 4 engine and pylon separated from the aircraft and fell on the runway along with a piece of the lower wing plating (which allowed fuel to escape and subsequently ignite). Damage was also done at this time to the attachments relating to number 3 engine, but that engine after touchdown continued to function. After this touchdown, the aircraft climbed to an altitude of 3,100 feet above the ground. During this climb, there were conversations between the First Officer and the aircraft airport control tower from which it is patent, that the air crew considered that they would be able to cause their aircraft to circle for another landing attempt on runway 32. In fact, the air crew did not know, until only about 40 seconds prior to the final crash, that the happening of such final crash was irreversible. During this climb, fire and smoke were seen trailing behind the aircraft intermittently. About 2 and one half minutes after the initial touch down of this aircraft on the runway, the first explosion occurred in the right wing outboard of number 4 engine location causing parts of the outer wing structure to fall free to the ground. Six seconds later, a second explosion occurred in the vicinity of number 3 engine and the engine with its pylon ripped free of the wing and fell to the ground in flames, trailing heavy black smoke. Six and one half seconds later, a third explosion occurred which caused the loss of a large section of the right wing, including the wing tip. The aircraft then went into a violent manoeuvre, and with the right wing still ablaze, lost height rapidly and at the same time more wing plating tore free following which the aircraft struck the ground at a high velocity, about 220 knots in the attitude with the left wing high and the nose low. At final crash, all persons aboard this aircraft were killed.

Vickers Viscount

Shortly after takeoff from Seven Islands Airport, while climbing, the crew reported a fire on engine number two and was cleared to return for a safe landing. After touchdown, the crew started an emergency braking procedure when control was lost due to fire in the left main gear wheel well. The airplane veered off runway to the right before coming to rest in flames. A passenger died during the evacuation and the aircraft was written off.

Douglas DC-8

The aircraft was on a conversion training flight from Montreal to Ottawa with three pilots on board. The aircraft departed Montreal at 1802 hours Eastern Standard Time on an instrument flight plan which was cancelled on reaching the Ottawa area. A hydraulic failure simulation was then carried out following which a touch-and-go landing on runway 32 was accomplished at 1825 hours. According to the recorded data the touch-and-go was accomplished with the ailerons in the manual mode, the flaps were raised to the 250 position during the landing roll and the ailerons were restored to the power mode during the turn following take-off while on a heading of about 260°. After about two minutes of flight on the downwind leg, No. 4 engine was retarded to flight idle and was kept at that setting for about two and a quarter minutes. During this period an average of about 30 left wing down bank was maintained, except at a point about halfway through that period the aircraft banked slowly 180 to the left, followed by a sharp reversal to 100 bank to the right. The length of the downwind leg was consistent with a planned two-engine asymmetric landing. Power was restored to No. 4 engine just before a left turn on to the base leg was started. During that turn No. 4 engine was again retarded to flight idle,then restored to normal power. No. 1 engine was then retarded to flight idle for about 20 seconds, then restored to normal power. The flaps remained at the 250 setting. While turning on to final approach, the pilot-in-command advised the tower that he was as yet undecided whether a landing would be carried out. When the aircraft had passed the UP beacon, about 84 miles from the runway threshold and approximately 200 sec from impact, rudder power was selected to the manual mode and power was reduced on all four engines. No. 4 engine was then retarded to the flight idle position and the other three engines advanced to approach power. About 171 sec before impact, the pilot-in-command advised the control tower that the aircraft would be making a full stop landing. The landing gear was extended 155 sec before impact and 120 sec before impact No. 3 engine was retarded to flight idle: at the same time power was increased on Nos. 1 and 2 engines. At that time the aircraft was at a height of 1 150 ft above the ground and its indicated airspeed was fairly steady around 165 kt. From 109 to 92 sec before impact, the aircraft turned to the right through 340 on to a heading of 3370. Power was reduced, bank applied and the aircraft returned to approximately the runway heading. The flaps were extended to 350, 69 sec before impact. At 54 sec before impact, the rudder was restored to the power mode for less than 6 sec and then returned to the manual mode. Through the period from 69 to 25 sec the rate of descent was relatively constant at about 700 ft/min with the aircraft tending to undershoot, and the airspeed decreasing from 163 to 152 kt. Power on Nos. 1 and 2 engines was progressively increased from 25 sec before impact until near maximum power was reached 8 sec before impact, following which they were retarded to flight idle. A yaw to the right had started 19 sec before impact and 12 sec before impact the throttles were advanced on engines 3 and 4 and they began to spool up. At 9 sec before impact and when some 200 ft above the ground, the left wing down condition could no longer be maintained and the aircraft entered a roll to the right. The roll rate to the right increased rapidly as did the yaw rate. The roll continued until the aircraft struck the ground in an inverted nose low attitude, 1 995 ft short of the threshold of runway 32 and 575 ft NE of its extended centre line. The accident occurred at 1837 hours. The aircraft was destroyed and all three crew members were killed.

Vickers Viscount

On final approach to Toronto-Lester Bowles Pearson Airport, while at an altitude of 700 feet 3,200 meters from the runway 28 threshold, the engine number lost power. The captain decided to shot down the engine but mistakenly stopped the engine number one. Unable to restart the engine number one, the crew increased power on both right engines number three and four but due to an asymmetric thrust, the airplane banked left then stalled and crashed short of runway threshold. All 44 occupants were evacuated safely while the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.