A Sunwing plane taking off from Cuba’s Holguin Airport to Montreal veered off the runway on Tuesday evening, causing numerous delays on site but also concern for affected passengers.
• Also read: Direct flights from Quebec: Sunwing and Air Transat are improving their offerings
• Also read: Passengers left in a “shithole” by Sunwing want compensation
This is the case of Isabelle Valentina, a resident of Trois-Rivières, who was on the plane with many Quebecers, children and families when the incident occurred.
Everything was normal as the Boeing B737-800 entered the runway to position for takeoff. However, Ms Valentina, who flies regularly, noticed the plane was traveling on the runway at a higher speed than normal.
“The plane was flying fast, a little faster than usual,” she tells TVANouvelles.ca. Then the device suddenly stopped.
“There was a sudden halt and people started questioning things. “The airport staff came and started taking photos of the plane,” says the traveler. “We said to ourselves: OK, there really is a problem. It was my daughter who noticed that we were stuck in some kind of pothole,” the woman adds.
Photo provided by Isabelle Valentina
In the images obtained by TVANouvelles.ca it is possible to see the wheels of the device, which appear to have hit the road.
The Trifluvienne, like other passengers, believes that she noticed that the plane had exceeded the boundaries of the runway. “We could see that we had exceeded the red lights on the ground,” indicating that she was not a specialist.
Photo provided by Isabelle Valentina
“Wrong maneuver?”
Shortly before the plane was evacuated, the pilot made an announcement in which he explained that there had been a wrong maneuver, the Quebecer adds. “He actually said it was a wrong maneuver,” she recalls.
The passengers always had to evacuate the Boeing three at a time with great caution, says the witness to the events. According to a local news channel in Cuba, there were 180 passengers on board.
The lady regrets that no one at the airport could explain what happened next, almost three hours after leaving the runway.
Photo: Hander Rodriguez Del Rio | Facebook
“You are required to do it every 30 minutes. The few messages we received were in English and the only one in French was unintelligible, she explains. Did we want to sleep at the airport or go to a hotel? Everyone wondered. We were still sitting in the dark. “You could have calmed us down,” reports the passenger.
Screenshot from a video by Maikel Leyva Ricardo
Luckily, buses arrived at the airport to transport travelers to a hotel, much to the relief of many. “Within three hours they were able to find hotels for us. “They didn’t let us down, but they didn’t keep us up to date,” the lady puts the situation into perspective. She also regrets not eating anything before leaving.
Letter from Sunwing
Sunwing then sent a letter to affected passengers in which the airline assured that no one was injured in the incident on flight WG645.
“The airline immediately implemented its emergency protocols and customers were flown out and accommodated for the night. Sunwing has also notified the relevant regulatory authorities in accordance with standard protocol in such situations,” the notice to passengers said.
Letter from Sunwing received from TVANouvelles.ca | decency
According to Isabelle Valentina, after the events, the plane was completely unflyable and was towed further onto the tarmac at Holguin Airport.
Screenshot from a video by Maikel Leyva Ricardo
Freight forwarder Sunwing also confirms that it had to send a maintenance team to the site “as soon as possible” to assess the situation. Unfortunately, during this process, other flights to and from Holguin experienced significant delays,” the airline continued in its letter.
Lane exceeded?
According to the Cuban airport services ECASA, the Boeing B737-800 “exceeded the set limits during the turning maneuver towards the take-off position, causing its landing gear to drop,” according to the note published on Facebook.
Photo Facebook, ECASA
Normal operations at Frank País International Airport in Holguin resumed at around 11:15 a.m. on Wednesday. Almost 24 hours later, at 8:40 p.m., Ms. Valentia finally landed in Montreal, eventually returning home with her daughter.
Investigations are underway to find out the cause of the incident.
Sunwing responded to TVANouvelles.ca’s request with a reminder of the events described in its letter to customers.
“Sunwing Airlines has also notified the relevant regulatory authorities in accordance with standard protocol in such situations. We thank our customers for their patience and understanding during this unforeseen situation,” the company said.
Holguin Airport | Photo from Facebook by Radio Angula