St. John’s International Airport Returned to Full Services
ST. JOHN’S, NL, Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 11:00pm- St. John’s International Airport Authority has announced that its operations were fully restored at 9:35pm following an aircraft overrun on its primary runway Saturday morning. Runway 11/29 is now open for aircraft operations and the approach lighting systems supporting its Category 2 Instrument Landing System are now fully restored.
The Airport Authority closed its primary runway (Runway 11/29) at 8:15am on Saturday, July 16, 2011 when Flight 288, a B727 cargo aircraft operated by Kelowna Flightcraft Air Charter Limited, landed at St. John’s International Airport on its primary runway (Runway 11) and overshot the end of the runway by approximately 375 feet. The aircraft was arriving from Moncton, NB with three crew members and no passengers onboard. The Airport Authority activated its Emergency Control Centre and its experienced and well-trained emergency response team were the first to respond to the incident, supported by St. John’s Regional Fire Department, Eastern Health and the RNC.
The airport was closed to flight operations between 8:15 and 9:45am on Saturday. At 9:45am, runway 16/34 was reopened and all commercial flights commenced operations. Four flights experienced delayed departures as a result of the airport closure: United Airlines Flight 172 to Newark, NJ; Westjet Flight 169 to Calgary, AB; Air Canada Flight 651 to Halifax, NS and Porter Airlines Flight 256 to Halifax, NS. The Airport Authority’s emergency response, maintenance, electrical and operations teams worked with the Transportation Safety Board today to assist in the investigation as to the cause of this incident, removed the aircraft from the runway, repaired the approach lighting systems that were damaged as a result of this incident, and restored the runway to safe and normal operations.
St. John’s International Airport Authority is a private, not-for-profit organization with the mandate to provide the region with a safe, cost-efficient transportation facility that is a catalyst for economic growth. Under the provisions of a long-term Ground Lease with the Federal Government of Canada, the Airport Authority is responsible for the airport’s operations on behalf of the community it serves.