An Air Canada Jazz flight from Nanaimo to Vancouver was forced to make an emergency landing after one of the aircraft's engines burst into flames after take-off.
Shortly after flight AC8258 took off from Nanaimo at around 7:20 a.m., crew members were notified of an engine malfunction before seeing flames come out of one of the aircraft’s engines, according to Air Canada officials.
The crew shut down the engine and successfully extinguished the flames before returning to Nanaimo Airport for an emergency landing.
None of the 35 passengers or three crew members aboard the aircraft were injured.
“After we got up to, I think it was pretty close to max altitude for that flight, there was a bright flash and some of the passengers…could see fire,” said passenger Trevor Fisher. “The crew really did a good job too; they reassured us the jet would’ve been able to make it to Vancouver even on one engine.”
Emergency vehicles swarmed the aircraft upon its landing, and a maintenance crew is now inspecting the Dash 8-300 to figure out what happened.
The incident shut down Nanaimo Airport for a few hours, but it reopened to flights at 11:30 a.m.
The airline rebooked flights for passengers who wanted to continue their trips.
