WestJet flight WS2425 was sitting stationary on the tarmac in Toronto after arriving from Cancun last night when it was hit by a Sunwing plane pushing back from its gate at around 6 p.m. Eastern.
When the planes struck, amusement turned to panic on board WestJet’s Boeing 737-800, according to passenger Gustavo Lobo.
“Out of nowhere there was an audible crunch and the plane rocked slightly,” Lobo told CBC News. …”Panic set in when [we saw] what seemed to be fuel spewing from the crash. After a couple of seconds the entire thing ignited and it was chaos inside the plane. People screaming and panicking all while the flight attendants shouted to try and control the situation.”
…”Everybody was saying the F-word and screaming,” [another passenger] said, adding that he mostly stayed calm until black smoke seeped into cabin.
Here’s a photo of the Sunwing aircraft taken by a passenger on another plane:
Passengers on the WestJet aircraft were evacuated by stairs as quickly as possible on one of the coldest nights in the city’s history, while the airport’s fire department extinguished flames from the Sunwing jet — which was being towed out of the gate and had no passengers or crew on board.
Here’s video of a wing on fire and chaotic passenger reactions in the cabin:
The airport initially claimed the incident wasn’t hampering operations.
At this time [9:40pm ET], airport operations have largely not been affected by the incident but continue to be challenged by the extreme cold weather conditions. https://t.co/zNRFf7YUXu
— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) January 6, 2018
They later acknowledged, however, that the incident played a role in delays.
Landed 2.5 hours ago. Waiting for ground crew at gate for 45 minutes. Operations HAVE been affected. Worst airport ever. @westjet 2513
— Chris Barnett (@cbarnett99) January 6, 2018
Sorry for the delay. An earlier emergency response & extreme cold has resulted in some arriving flights experiencing longer than normal waits. We thank you for your patience while we continue to work with our airline partners to safety accommodate incoming passengers.
— Toronto Pearson (@TorontoPearson) January 6, 2018
Fortunately it appears that nobody was hurt in the incident.
Why was no effort being made on the plane at all to evacuate when a fire was spreading from the end of the wing? Are you kidding me that modern aviation needs someone to call someone else and then trigger an alarm? This should be automated so that a fire like that on a fully loaded plane triggers evacuation at the very moment it breaks out. Those fuel tanks are bombs ready to go off and fire could have engulfed the plane in 20-30 seconds when they were sitting there like dumb cows chewing their cud.