Air Canada Flight 624
Airbus A320-211 · Controlled flight into terrain in poor visibility
From Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) to Halifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- ENG15WA026
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 138
- Survivors
- 138
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 25
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Unknown
Airbus A320-211
- Flight
- AC624
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A320
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- C-FTJP
- Operator
- Air Canada
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ)To Halifax / Stanfield International Airport (YHZ)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Organizational issues › Development
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Air Canada Flight 624 was a scheduled Canadian domestic passenger flight from Toronto Pearson International Airport to Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia. During heavy snow and poor visibility, at 00:43 ADT (03:43 UTC) on 29 March 2015, the Airbus A320 landed short of the runway and was severely damaged. Twenty-five people were injured, two of them seriously.
Accident
Air Canada Flight 624 departed from Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) bound for Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ). It was carrying 133 passengers and five crew. The Airbus A320 operating the flight, registration C-FTJP, impacted the ground 225 m short of the threshold of runway 05 (which is not equipped for precision landing), smashing through an ILS-LOC antenna array. This impact caused the landing gear to separate from the aircraft. The plane also impacted a power line, which cut power to the airport. The aircraft then climbed an embankment up to the runway level, skidded on its belly and stopped 570 m past the threshold. The Halifax airport was without electricity for about 90 minutes.
The aircraft was extensively damaged, having lost all landing gear and its port engine. The wings and tailplane were also damaged. Both pilots, twenty-three passengers and a flight attendant were taken to hospital. None of the injuries were life-threatening, and all but one of those taken to hospital were released the same day. The weather at the time of the accident was described as "stormy" (winter conditions). The loss of power to the airport was due to the aircraft clipping transmission lines before hitting the ground. Electricity was restored to the airport by 02:12 ADT.
While the aircraft collided with objects outside the airport perimeter and was damaged beyond repair, Air Canada initially described the accident as a "hard landing".
The aircraft was written off as it was substantially damaged.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The accident was investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Bureau of Enquiry and Analysis for Civil Aviation Safety (BEA) investigators from France and two technical advisers from Airbus travelled to Canada to participate in the investigation. As a result of the accident, Air Canada revised its incorrect Airbus A320-200 Standard Operating Procedure.
The final report was released in May 2017, and showed no mechanical faults contributing to the accident, but identified multiple contributing factors for the accident. Investigators determined that the airline's standard operating procedure in regard to the selected landing mode (Flight Path Angle Guidance) was over-reliant on the Airbus' automation and led to excessive loss of altitude. Per the SOP, the crew need not have monitored the aircraft's altitude or relation to the runway to make any subsequent adjustments to the flight path angle after the final approach fix. Subsequently, the captain and first officer failed to notice or respond to the fact that the aircraft autopilot selected a steep vertical angle flight path, causing a drop below the minimum safe altitude. Furthermore, limited visibility hampered the crew's ability to accurately perceive their surroundings.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Air Canada Flight 624” (revision 1370610350, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On 29 March 2015, an Air Canada Airbus A320-200 aircraft (registration C-FTJP) clipped a power line and approach lights short of Runway 05 at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) of Canada is investigating the accident. As the state of manufacture of the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) unit, the NTSB has designated a U.S. Accredited Representative under the provisions of Annex 13 to the Convention on Civil Aviation to assist the TSB.
All inquiries concerning this accident should be directed to the TSB of Canada at:
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
200 Promenade du Portage
Place du Centre, 4th Floor
Hull, Quebec K1A 1K8
Canada
Website: http://www.tsb.gc.ca
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Air Canada Flight 624
- Article
- Air Canada Flight 624
- Revision
- 1370610350 · 2026-08-22 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q19693134
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ENG15WA026
- Event ID
- 20150626X41040
- Case number
- ENG15WA026
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Air Canada Flight 624" (page 46257328, revision 1370610350); merged with NTSB case ENG15WA026 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record ENG15WA026
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (2)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Air Canada Flight 624" and NTSB case ENG15WA026, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.