An Air Canada Jazz flight out of Smithers had to turn back for an emergency landing this afternoon.
Passenger Chris Koch was on the plane when the engine shut down.
“They delayed the flight because of mechanical problems in the morning. I don’t know if they changes planes or not or if it is the same plane or whatever but we got delayed by that. Then we went flying and we were about 20 minutes out and I felt that something wasn’t right because I fly myself, so I noticed something. And then about two minutes later they shut it down and the prop stopped and they came back.”
Koch took a photo of the stalled engine from his seat.
According to Koch the plane landed safely back in Smithers on one engine while emergency response crews waited on the ground as a safety precaution.
“Everything was here; fire, ambulance and police. They stopped us on the runway to make sure we weren’t on fire. The brakes were smoking a little bit but that’s pretty normal.”
According to his Twitter feed, MP Nathan Cullen was on the flight and thanked the crew for a good job.
No word yet on what caused the mechanical failure. Stay tuned for more details.
photo courtesy of Chris Koch