Air Canada landing video Montreal captured Flight AC774 after it veered off a taxiway at Trudeau airport and came to rest in grass on Thursday. Air Canada said none of the 156 passengers or six crew members were injured, but the delay before they got off the Boeing 737 MAX 8 became a second point of scrutiny.
John Gradek, a McGill University aviation management lecturer and academic program coordinator, said the reported three-hour wait before deplaning was one of the most concerning parts of the incident. He said, “To have passengers sit on the airplane for three hours is not what I would call prompt evacuation,” and added, “To me, looking at it, it’s dangerously slow.”
Trudeau airport runway excursion
The flight arrived from Los Angeles before leaving the taxiway in Montreal. Air Canada said the aircraft stopped in a grassy area, where it remained while the response unfolded.
Barbara Edelston Peterson, a passenger on the flight, posted a video to Facebook after the incident. She said the aircraft appeared to skid after touchdown before coming to rest in the grass, and said passengers could see dirt and debris outside the windows.
Gradek on evacuation timing
Gradek said commercial aircraft are certified to allow a full evacuation in 90 seconds. He said, “We design airplanes for quick evacuations,” and described the aircraft as stuck after it left the pavement. “The airplane was stuck,” he said. “There was no place for that airplane to go.”
He said investigators will ask the pilots what happened and then validate that account with recorder data. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is interviewing the flight crew, reviewing communications with air traffic controllers, downloading data from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, and carrying out a physical inspection of the aircraft.
Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigation
The investigation now centers on how the aircraft left the taxiway and why passengers remained aboard for about three hours. Gradek said, “But I’d rather err on the side of caution and not take any unnecessary risk.”
For passengers and crew, the immediate facts are already clear: no injuries were reported, and the aircraft has been moved into the investigative process while the Transportation Safety Board of Canada works through the evidence from the crew, the recorders, and the airframe itself.
