The pilot who crash-landed Air Canada Flight AC624 in Halifax early Sunday had to bring the aircraft in without benefit of an instrument landing system, a retired Transport Canada aviation inspector says.
Jock Williams told CBC Tuesday the AC624 pilot used the "back course," which he described as "the poor sister of the instrument landing system."
Halifax does have a proper instrument landing system to help aircraft in poor weather, but only on one end of the runway that was in use Sunday. Given the weather and wind direction, the pilot used the other end of the runway.
Williams told CBC's Information Morning that adding such a system to each runway would be expensive.
"The Halifax airport, and every other airport in the country, has financial constraints," Williams said. "They don't have an unlimited supply of money. And let me tell you, passengers would be the first to complain about increased costs if the airlines were required to pay for it."
The airport has said it follows the guidelines of Nav Canada, the company that provides air navigation systems in Canada, which Williams did not dispute. He said Sunday's crash may lead to changes.
"That's what we call the blood imperative: when you start hurting people, all of a sudden it becomes popular to spend some money. But I wouldn't be blaming Nav Canada. I'd be blaming the generally penuriousness of the Canadian public. We don't like to spend money on stuff."
He added: "Everybody likes to criticize after there's been an accident, but nobody likes to ante up ahead of time"
Better lighting would improve safety
The Air Canada plane landed during heavy snow and at night. Williams said better lighting would also have helped the pilot. He described the Halifax airport as a "black hole" that offers less surrounding lighting than many other airports.
He doesn't think Halifax has a long-distance, lead-in light system.
"Some airports have a mile or more of red lights in various patterns to help you judge your height and to help you judge your angular relationship with the runway," he said.
Such lights are called a visual slope indicator system.
"One thing that might help to improve the safety of the system is ensuring on absolutely every runway there is a visual slope indicator system. I don't know whether that system was on and working at Halifax at the moment of this accident or not."
CBC News asked the Halifax airport for details on its lighting systems, but has not yet received a reply.
Runway work underway
It could take a month before flights are given the go-ahead to land on the runway where the Air Canada plane crashed Sunday.
Joyce Carter, chief executive of the Halifax International Airport Authority, said work is underway to get runway 05/23 operational as quickly as possible.
Air Canada will remove the wreckage from Flight AC624 in the next few days. The airport will then inspect the runway for damage repair if required, setting it up to handle flights in good weather within a few days.
"However, it will likely take a minimum of at least a month before the navigational aids, damaged during the incident, can be replaced by Nav Canada," she said late Monday. "This means that unfavourable weather conditions — wind, poor visibility, etc.— could affect airline flight schedules."
After crashing, the Airbus A320, which had flown from Toronto, slid another 335 metres along the runway. There were 133 passengers and five crew members on board. Twenty-three people were taken to hospital, none with critical injuries.
On Monday, the airport began a full review of its response to the crash. It took an hour to get passengers off the runway and into shelter after the crash. The passengers, many wearing summer clothes, were stuck outdoors in the snowstorm.
"We are looking at what we did well and at the things we can improve upon and build into our plans and standard operating procedures," Carter said.
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