A Halifax law firm says a proposed $18 million settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit filed by on behalf of the passengers of Air Canada Flight 62410 years after a plane skidded on a Halifax runway and injured 25 people on board.
The Wagners law firm filed a class-action lawsuit in 2015 on behalf of all 133 passengers.
A 45-day liability trial against Air Canada, NAV Canada, the Halifax International Airport Authority, Airbus and the attorney general of Canada was due to begin next month.
The proposed settlement means there will be no trial.
If approved by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, the settlement will provide compensation to passengers and also cover legal costs and expenses, as well as fees for the three representative plaintiffs.
“They were, of course, very lucky that it wasn't more tragic than it was. People were injured, but no one died,” said attorney Ray Wagner.
“It was very difficult for people to deal with (…) so staying for 10 years adds to the trauma they experienced. Now that we have a solution, we hope it will help passengers put it all behind them and move on, those people who experienced psychological problems due to the disaster.”
Air Canada Flight 624 arrived at Halifax Stanfield International Airport around 12:30 p.m. on a snowy March 29, 2015. There were 133 passengers and five crew members on board.
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While attempting to land, the plane's engines struck several power lines and then crashed to the ground about 225 meters short of the runway threshold. It also struck the antenna array before the end of the runway, causing the main landing gear to become detached.
The plane's nose and engine were torn off, and the wing was seriously damaged.
Passengers exited the plane via an emergency slide and were left stranded on the runway during a snowstorm before being transported to a hangar.
Twenty-five people were injured and were hospitalized. The lawsuit alleged that the remaining passengers spent 50 minutes on the tarmac outside before being transported to a closed waiting area.
Damage to the passenger cabin of the Air Canada plane that crashed at Halifax Airport is visible in a photo provided by the Transportation Safety Board.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO-Transportation Safety Council
A year later, one of the lead plaintiffs in the class action told Global News that he believed the ordeal could have been avoided.
“I'm sure it was a difficult decision for them to land or not, but I think in this case the conditions didn't make the right decision,” said Asher Hodara, who said he hit his head twice during an emergency landing and ended up with a concussion in March 2016.
Other passengers told Global News in 2016 that they had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder or were still trying to move past the incident.
Wagner said the proposed $18 million settlement was a “reasonable settlement” and said it was a “hard-fought, proxy settlement” that occurred over a period of days.
He added that 10 years under the class action is “a longer period.”
The lawsuit involved gaining access to the cockpit voice recorder, which went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
“There have been many attempts over the years to bring this case to a conclusion, but we have had to overcome many obstacles,” he said, adding that it is rare for a class-action lawsuit to reach the Supreme Court of Canada.
TSB report
The Transportation Safety Board, in its report published in May 2017, found: that poor visibility and lighting led to the emergency landing.
The report states that crew members aboard the plane set the autopilot to the correct descent angle during the snowstorm, but they did not notice that the wind had blown the plane off its flight path.
Investigators also found that Air Canada procedures did not require the flight crew to monitor the aircraft's altitude and distance from the runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
Additionally, the report notes that the flight crew requested that the runway lights be adjusted to maximum, but the tower controller was concerned about snow plows on the runway and nearby aircraft on the taxiway.
The report concluded that the pilots only realized the plane was too low and too far back after they disengaged from the autopilot in the last few seconds of the flight.
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