“Runway ’97” – 25 Years Since Fredericton Crash Landing

2022 marks 25 years since passengers of a Fredericton-bound plane got a big scare. On the night of December 16th, 1997, at around midnight Atlantic time, Air Canada Flight 646 crash landed onto the Fredericton International Airport runway. It had departed from the Toronto Lester B. Pearson International Airport only 2 hours earlier.

As it approached the airport, the reported ceiling was obscured by 100 feet. The visibility was about 1/8th of a mile in fog and the runway visual range was said to be 100 feet. On descent, reaching about 35 feet, the captain assessed that the aircraft was not in a position to land safely and ordered the pilot to go around. The Canadian Transportation Safety Board says as the aircraft reached its go-around pitch altitude of about 10 degrees, it stalled aerodynamically, struck the runway, veered to the right and then traveled at full power and uncontrolled about 2100 feet from the first impact point, struck a large tree and came to rest.

The airport’s former Foreman of Airfield Maintenance Murray Wilson says the weather conditions that night were poor.

“It was just really foggy, and they have to have 1200 feet to land before the pilot’s supposed to set it on the ground. Well, when I was out there, before the flight [had] come, I could only see 3 runway lights.” 

The airport’s former Building and Mechanical Maintenance Supervisor Earl Pollock remembers the day.

“The motors were still running full throttle. It went to touch down and it was in the wrong place to land on the runway. It was off to the side, kind of going on an angle and they realized that they were off to the side, so he [the pilot] tried to abort, and when he did, the end of the wing hit the runway and that threw him out of kilter and they went sliding.”

7 passengers were trapped in the aircraft until rescued. Of the 39 total passengers and 3 crew members, 9 were seriously injured, and the rest received minor or no injuries. 

A scary memory to be sure, but Wilson and Pollock remain thankful there were no lives lost that night, 25 years ago.

“But the one thing I’ll say is there was nobody killed or that would have bothered you a little more,” Wilson said.

“But it’s no wonder, it’s just a damn lucky thing that there weren’t more injuries, you know?” Pollock said.

More than two decades have passed, but this terrifying memory continues to stick with each worker and passenger that was present that evening in ’97.