Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Bear and Bearskin incidents at Timmins Airport

What may be the first nuisance bear incident of the season occurred last week at the Timmins Airport when a bear cub was seen wandering onto Runway 03/21 by crew members of two separate planes approaching for their landings.
It happened at about 4:00 p.m. on Monday Mar. 17 according to the incident report filed with Transport Canada.
A third incoming aircraft made a low pass to determine if the bear was on or off the runway. Other incoming aircraft were diverted to Runway 10/28.
All runways were then closed for approximately 10 minutes, field maintenance staff were called out “and the situation was dealt with,” the report says.
An airport official confirmed for The Timmins Times that the young bear was in bad shape, suffering with a broken foot. The animal was put down in a humane manner. The Ministry of Natural Resources was advised, but did not respond.
SLIDES OFF RUNWAY
Another incident later in the week forced the runways to be shutdown when an incoming Bearskin Lake Metroliner landed on Runway 03/21 and then “slid off of the runway approximately 300 feet south of runway 10/28”. According to the Transport Canada report, the incident occurred early last Wednesday morning, Mar. 19.
“The aircraft was stuck but there were no reported injuries,” the report states. The report does not indicate how many persons were aboard the plane at the time it slid off the runway.
“Runway 03/21 was closed and runway 10/28 was 100% snow-covered. Other traffic returned to their points of departure or cancelled their intended flights to Timmins Airport. The aircraft was removed and runway 03/21 was plowed/swept before it was re-opened at 0140 Zulu. (5:40 a.m. Eastern Standard Time).
An airport official said the incident was minor in nature and that the aircraft was immediately checked out and it was discovered there was no damage to the plane.
EMERGENCY RESPONSE
A further incident occurred Wednesday evening, when an Air Creebec flight reported that it was not getting an indication that it’s landing gear was properly deployed for a landing.
The incident was reported around 7:00 p.m. Wednesday. Emergency response paramedics and firefighters rushed to the airport. There were five emergency vehicles on standby.
After about twenty minutes, the plane approached the airport where it was confirmed that all landing gear was in place. The twin-engined commuter plane landed safely.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

a) a slow day in news.
b) a Timmins day in news.
c) all of the above.