An Air Canada Jazz flight from Vancouver came dangerously close to hitting a snowplow at the Whitehorse airport recently, according to an aviation accident tracker.
An investigation on the actions of the March 6 CRJ-705 flight is now underway.
Two weeks ago, it landed without permission as sweeping trucks were clearing snow from the runway.
“I can confirm there was an incident,” said airport manager John Rogers. Rogers refused to comment any further, citing a Nav Canada probe.
Nav Canada, a private company in charge of running the country’s air traffic control systems, refused to comment while the Transportation and Safety Board performs its investigation.
The flight was carrying four people and was flying in heavy overcast with visibility at 800 metres, reported the Aviation Herald.
The Whitehorse control tower asked the flight to report once it was within 16 kilometres of the landing strip and advised that runway sweeping was in progress.
The flight failed to report to the tower and landed 730 metres into the runway after passing over two sweeping trucks sitting at the runway’s edge, said the Herald.
A spokesperson from the Transportation and Safety Board confirmed there was an investigation, but refused to discuss details.
The Aviation Herald is an Austrian-based website that publishes airplane and airport incidents daily. (James Munson)