Vancouver Airport Clears Damaged Amazon Air Cargo Jet From Runway

The north runway at the Canadian airport remained closed to air traffic Thursday as officials assess systems and infrastructure. Passenger and cargo aircraft continue to experience flight delays with only a single runway in operation.

Canada’s Transportation Safety Board allowed crews in the morning to begin the process of relocating the Boeing 767 freighter from the runway area after gathering evidence for their accident investigation.

Specialists from Air Canada’s heavy aircraft removal crew lifted the nose of the aircraft from the mud, the airport said. The plane’s landing gear broke when the plane left the runway. More than 50 people from various organizations, including aircraft operator Cargojet, are participating in recovery efforts. Removing the cargo jet required offloading cargo, constructing temporary roadways and staging pads, setting up cranes to lift the aircraft and dispatching tow crews to transport it safely to a nearby hangar for cleaning and further inspection.  

Cargojet, the largest all-cargo operator in Canada, was operating the Amazon-branded plane under a contract with the online marketplace. The plane arrived in the early morning hours from Hamilton, Ontario. A report by The Aviation Herald said the pilots reported problems with their wing flaps prior to landing on the wet runway, but it is unclear why speedbrakes and other steps weren’t sufficient to prevent the plane from overshooting a 9,900-foot runway by nearly 1,900 feet.

None of the three crewmembers were injured. 

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on FreightWaves.