Travel

Sunwing plane clips WestJet plane at Toronto airport, sparking fire

  • Last Updated:
  • Jan 20th, 2019 12:03 am
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Another big Cross Mark on Sunwing’s Safety Record

https://www.aeroinside.com/incidents/airline/sunwing

And still people figure saving money is the most important aspect to their Travel Plans

I think that being in the WestJet and looking out the window at a plane that hit yours / touched and on fire would be terrifying... knowing that yours is loaded with Pax & Fuel... and you have few options on where to go quickly to escape

Sooo lucky this did not turn out worse

ADD / EDIT - The WestJet plane had just arrived inbound from Cancun.
Last edited by PointsHubby on Jan 5th, 2018 11:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Swissport Canada Handling Inc. confirmed to Global News its staff towed the Sunwing plane. Pierre Payette, vice president of operations for Toronto, said in a written statement the company “regrets” the incident and is cooperating with Transportation Safety Board investigators.

from https://globalnews.ca/news/3949217/sunw ... o-airport/
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Feb 11, 2009
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Absolutely freezing outside! I guess they got back into the terminal somehow Glad everyone made it out OK.
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PointsHubby wrote: I think that being in the WestJet and looking out the window at a plane that hit yours / touched and on fire would be terrifying... knowing that yours is loaded with Pax & Fuel... and you have few options on where to go quickly to escape
And I'm sure a lot of them were caught offguard. Most people know that the most dangerous parts of a flight are takeoff and landing -- because if those go wrong, they go very wrong very fast. The people on the WestJet plane had already been through a successful takeoff, i assume an incident-free level flight (maybe some turbulence, but that doesn't matter here), a successful landing in Toronto (despite icy runways etc which I'm sure you'd be nervous about), and a successful taxi to ramp (so they didn't get T-boned by a plane on the wrong runway, that kind of disaster). So with the plane already on the ramp and almost at the gate you're 99.99% confident there won't be danger anymore. This was that 0.01%.
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EastGTARedFlagger wrote: And I'm sure a lot of them were caught offguard. Most people know that the most dangerous parts of a flight are takeoff and landing -- because if those go wrong, they go very wrong very fast. The people on the WestJet plane had already been through a successful takeoff, i assume an incident-free level flight (maybe some turbulence, but that doesn't matter here), a successful landing in Toronto (despite icy runways etc which I'm sure you'd be nervous about), and a successful taxi to ramp (so they didn't get T-boned by a plane on the wrong runway, that kind of disaster). So with the plane already on the ramp and almost at the gate you're 99.99% confident there won't be danger anymore. This was that 0.01%.
Good Points

(And i’m Sorry, I read it wrong ... I thought the WestJet plane was outbound for Cancun not arriving back)
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May 22, 2016
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PointsHubby wrote: Another big Cross Mark on Sunwing’s Safety Record

https://www.aeroinside.com/incidents/airline/sunwing

And still people figure saving money is the most important aspect to their Travel Plans

I think that being in the WestJet and looking out the window at a plane that hit yours / touched and on fire would be terrifying... knowing that yours is loaded with Pax & Fuel... and you have few options on where to go quickly to escape

Sooo lucky this did not turn out worse

ADD / EDIT - The WestJet plane had just arrived inbound from Cancun.
It wasn't sunwing's fault it was being towed by a company that was in a labor dispute or still is in one. Also Air Canada costs alot more and one of their better pilots almost crashed into a plane last year almost killing hundreds.
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webshark wrote: It wasn't sunwing's fault it was being towed by a company that was in a labor dispute or still is in one. Also Air Canada costs alot more and one of their better pilots almost crashed into a plane last year almost killing hundreds.
I'm neutral regarding Air Canada but given their problems/bad luck landing in San Francisco I'd avoid that particular destination with them just for my own peace-of-mind. But that's one destination out of dozens/hundreds and not grounds to totally exclude them as an option to go anywhere else. Given their bad luck I'd totally avoid Malaysian for the same reason. Travel is stressful enough, if you can eliminate any more sources of it, you do it.

I don't hate AC (unlike some posters) but I'm definitely not a fanboi either.
I will fly them if they win the "competition" when I'm picking my flights for a trip. They won last time (San Diego) because they 1-had the best schedule for my needs, 2-it's nonstop (anybody else would involve a change, so I'd be arriving later... so that ties in to #1), and 3-the price was about the same as I would have paid on any of Delta, WestJet, United.... all of which would need a change (WestJet doesn't fly San Diego - it was YYZ-LAX then switch to a puddlejumper on one of their partners, or drive 2 hours from LA to SD).

Edited to add (since I forgot to comment on that point): I don't see how the labour dispute has anything to do with this, unless you're suggesting sabotage on the part of the union. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to risk killing people (meaning years in the slammer) for something like that. Although militant unions have done that in the past, and thankfully those thugs DID go to jail:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/e ... e-murders/
Last edited by EastGTARedFlagger on Jan 6th, 2018 10:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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PointsHubby wrote: Another big Cross Mark on Sunwing’s Safety Record
webshark wrote: It wasn't sunwing's fault it was being towed by a company that was in a labor dispute or still is in one. Also Air Canada costs alot more and one of their better pilots almost crashed into a plane last year almost killing hundreds.
That's right. It was not Sunwing's fault, but the ground company Swissport which handles many airlines. It could've easily be another airline's plane they were towing.

The other AC pilot came within seconds of major aviation disaster which would've killed many hundreds of passengers. That was 100% AC problem.
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so the westjet was waiting (at full stop) in front of the gate (not at the gate) and the sunwing was being towed from the gate ?
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lubmar wrote: so the westjet was waiting (at full stop) in front of the gate (not at the gate) and the sunwing was being towed from the gate ?
The Westjet aircraft was stationary and waiting to go to a gate when it was clipped by an empty Sunwing aircraft that was being towed by the airline’s ground handling service (Swissport) back from a gate.
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Jan 8, 2012
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Pleased to see the thread title has changed since last night.

I was going to respond then, but I waited til I knew more about what had happened.

More pleased to see no one was hurt in the incident.
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And now tons of flights landing at YYZ are delayed. Know personally of people trying to get home who've had flights cancelled as a result of this.
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The Transportation Safety Board’s investigation into a collision between two planes on the Pearson airport tarmac will examine whether WestJet followed its evacuation protocols.

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I read that the evacuation from the Westjet jet was kind of a clusterf--- as well, as many passengers insisted on taking their carry-on luggage with them, slowing down the evac process.
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Talamasca wrote: I read that the evacuation from the Westjet jet was kind of a clusterf--- as well, as many passengers insisted on taking their carry-on luggage with them, slowing down the evac process.
Ya I heard that too in the aftermath.

I can only imagine the mess.

Flight Attendants should have insisted, and Pax should have complied

There is certainly a way to lockdown the plane afterwards and then have Pax return 1 by 1 to their seat accompanied by a Crew Member to get their belongings, and only their belongings

This is however an example of what is wrong with today’s flying Pax, as well as what can eff up an emergency exit when one is on the ground, and terminal in plain view
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It’s good that folks are able to distinguish between Westjet and SwissPort.

Unlike the whole United (vs Republican Airlines and the airport police) debacles.
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ok so it looks like swissport is in trouble for crushing into westjet , and westjet is in trouble for "problematic" evacuation ... good thing that everybody is ok (probably somebody lost a job)
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Talamasca wrote: I read that the evacuation from the Westjet jet was kind of a clusterf--- as well, as many passengers insisted on taking their carry-on luggage with them, slowing down the evac process.
We were at the back of a coach one time, when the driver suddenly stopped at the shoulder, with smoke coming from the back. He asked everyone to get off the bus. Many people were trying to take their belongings from the top, from under the seat, etc., and delayed going out. We at the back were yelling at those in the front to get out asap.

Fortunately it turned out it was cooling system issue, and at the end we were told to get back into the coach to wait for another one to come get us. But if there was fire at the back of the bus and we had to get out in a hurry, those in the front taking their time, trying to get their bags from the top or bottom, could've killed those in the back.

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