Update: Rick Leach, Airport Manager for the Prince Rupert Airport Authority outlined the nature of the conditions on Saturday that led to the flight cancellation. His notes to the North Coast Review are as follows:
The field conditions worsened overnight with rain turning to freezing rain, then snow accumulation. Crews worked through the early morning until the planned arrival, to remove contaminants from the runaway but were unable to restore the runway down to the pavement. 5/8” of ice had formed under the snow and after repeated scrapings and application of deicing chemicals, they were unable to get the runway to acceptable levels to facilitate a landing.
Crews reported that the conditions were as bad as they had seen in many years. My assumption is Air Canada had hoped the runway could be restored by the time of the arrival, but conditions were too severe.
The runway was put back into service at 15:00pst on Saturday.
Original story
It seems that the combination of snow and the arrival of cold temperatures overnight on Friday conspired against travellers looking to fly out of Prince Rupert's Digby Island airport on Saturday.
The North Coast Review first heard word of the travel troubles by email from those awaiting the flight at Digby and the apparent diversion of the Air Canada service back to Vancouver for the Saturday flight in and out of Prince Rupert.
One observation noted that the flight which left Vancouver on schedule, had circled the Prince Rupert airport for a period of time as it waited for runway conditions to be cleared of accumulated ice and snow, the plane eventually returned to Vancouver without landing.
The Prince Rupert area saw an accumulation of snow overnight Friday and temperatures have taken a significant tumble with the arrival of an Arctic Outflow to the entire Northwest as well.
The account of the flight diversion bears out through a listing on a website which tracks flights called Flight Aware, that online resource notes the diversion of the flight, along with a map of the flight's travels which indicate that it had circled the airport a number of times prior to the return to Vancouver.
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| The Flight Aware tacking application notes Saturday's flight circling the airport in Prince Rupert before returning to Vancouver (click to enlarge) |
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| The listing from Flight Aware of the diversion of Saturday's flight to Prince Rupert(click to enlarge) |
The North Coast Review made e mail inquiries Sunday of the both the City of Prince Rupert and the Prince Rupert Airport seeking some background on the Saturday situation.
The City has since responded with the advice to direct our inquiries towards the Airport operations office.
As of yet, we have not received any further information related to the nature of the Saturday flight diversion from YPR.
Should their representative outline further official notes on the situation, we will update our story accordingly.
For more items of interest on aviation in the Northwest see our archive page here.
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Doesn’t the airport put out advisory on runway conditions when open in the morning? Mr. Leach’s statement “My assumption is Air Canada hoped the runway could be restored by time of arrival “ sure makes me wonder.
ReplyDeleteI somehow can’t see Air Canada just taking off on a prayer the runway will clear. Is the airports intention to throw Air Canada under the bus. To me the manager should check with AC as with any investigation to determine facts prior to making statement.
If this statement was delivered to North Coast Review on Wednesday investigation should be complete enough to make factual statement rather then assumptions.
Field reports are issued, and were issued. On a 2 hour stage length field conditions can rapidly change, for the better or for the worse, especially in Canada during winter conditions. Airport Authorities do not direct Air Carriers on their operational plans, and upon approach to YPR, the pilot decided to return to YVR (after fly arounds) as conditions (at this specific moment) were not compatible for a landing of a Q-400. Safety is the PRIMARY concern in aviation. Flights returning, or diverting to other airports, is a common occurrence during severe weather conditions. Rdgs.
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