The NTSB and FAA are investigating after an Air Canada Rouge A319 landed short of the runway at Nashville Airport on Thursday and hit a threshold light. The aircraft remains in Nashville, presumably for an inspection. The plane rolled out normally and taxied to the gate under its own power. The plane appears undamaged, but its return flight to Toronto was canceled and passengers booked on other flights. The incident came just before flight attendants went on strike in a precedent-setting battle over unpaid work.
The flight attendants walked out on Friday, causing the cancellation of hundreds of flights and affecting 130,000 passengers. Within 12 hours, the Canadian government ordered them back to work and enforced binding arbitration on the two sides. As with most major airlines, Air Canada flight attendants are paid for wheels up to wheels down and all the preflight and after-flight work is technically unpaid. They’re demanding they be paid for that work.
The government’s action infuriated the flight attendants and they stayed off the job, preventing the airline from resuming flights. Their union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said it’s appealing the ruling. “I don’t think anyone’s in the mood to go back to work,” Lillian Speedie, a Toronto CUPE leader, told CBC’s News Network Sunday. “To legislate us back to work 12 hours after we started? I’m sorry, snowstorms have shut down Air Canada for longer than we were allowed to strike.”
“Air Canada Flight Clips Threshold Light as Furious Flight Attendants Strike”
Funny! Makes it sound like the aircraft clip the threshold light at the same time the flight attendants struck. And not just struck, but furiously struck.
Reads like AI reporting.
BNA no stranger to light clipping. Some years ago, I was a supervisor up in the tower one very foggy morning. Couldn’t see a thing from the tower. WOXOF. Aircraft were doing Cat II ILS to 2L. We were just having them report their positions as they progressed. We were also departing 2L. Several aircraft landed, and a departure, as it taxied out to the runway said, “Hey tower, you got some lights out here on the runway.” We said thanks and we would have them replaced. Departure took off. Next departure, as it went out onto the runway said, “Hey tower, you got broken glass all over the runway out here.” Well, that painted a better picture for us. We had an airport truck hustle out and tell us what was going on. He got out there and said, “Hey tower, you have broken lights scattered all over the runway and about half of the approach lights are knocked down.” Well, we shut down the runway and called FSDO on the airport. Because of the weather, the only arrivals had been a bunch of AAL flights. They went over to the terminal ramp and looked. They came upon a B727 sitting there with wrinkles in the flaps and creased gear doors. Hmmm!. Checking, FSDO was told that the Captain who had flown that flight into BNA was long gone. He had taken his connection and headed to FLA. Needless to say, FSDO contacted AAL and told them about their now unusable plane and to not let that Captain go anywhere after he lands in FLA.
Captain told FSDO, after they finally captured him, he didn’t do more than a hard landing. He said he broke out at last minute, saw the runway and unfortunately let himself do somewhat of a last minute dive for the lights. Landed normally but hard and taxied in. FSDO said that as suspicious as it might sound, they believed the guy and FO verified the story. I believe the outcome was a bit of company retraining for the Captain, and everyone went on to live happily ever after. “Lights out on the runway” from then on had a different meaning up in the tower.
Sounds like Russ’s writing voice to me!
This article reports an interesting cross-border difference In howf light pay is calculated”
“Air Canada flight attendants are paid for wheels up to wheels down.”
South of the border, flight pay is usually credited as “block to block”.That is from when the aircraft leaves the boarding gate to the time the aircraft stops at the (de)boarding gate at the destination.
Apprenticeship pay starting out increasing with seniority as in many industries. The flying game is notorious for volatility and sacrifices are routinely made while waiting for lifestyle improvements and security. As I’ve mentioned in previous posts the situation at Ryanair in Covid times had crews working for months without a paycheque just to keep their jobs and seniority. This business is not for the faint of heart. As for hitting the approach lights, probably better than overrunning the runway! Not how you’d like to be remembered.