A Nova Scotia judge has certified a class action suit on behalf of passengers involved in the crash of an Air Canada A320 at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in March of 2015.
The suit would have been allowed earlier but Transport Canada put up a major legal defence against being named in the suit. The regulator claimed that since it had no direct relationship with the plaintiffs, it shouldn’t be a defendant.
Supreme Court Justice Denis Boudreau agreed with the plaintiffs’ lawyers who argued TC was responsible for the decision to not equip runway 05 with an ILS when it owned the airport.
Air Canada Flight 624 was landing in terrible weather on March 29, 2015 when it touched down 225 metres short of that runway after crashing through the localizer antenna and tearing off the landing gear and an engine before sliding to a stop 570 metres down the runway. Remarkably, no one was killed and there were relatively few injuries.
But passengers claim lasting psychological effects from the crash, including anxiety and a fear of flying.