Passengers ejected as plane lands on the wing

Air Canada Flight 104 from San Diego to Toronto has touched down in Toronto, about three hours behind schedule, with all the 171 passengers and seven crew members onboard requiring medical treatment after the plane’s hydraulic fluid began leaking during takeoff.

“I saw the plane start to fall to the ground, and then it fell back up, and then it started to descend,” passenger Thomas Kilroy, who called his flight experience “terrifying,” told The Globe and Mail. “A part of me knew it was going to come down, but a part of me didn’t.”

Other passengers described people screaming as the plane started to spin 360 degrees. The “V-shaped” descent happened in under half an hour. After the plane landed safely, fire crews were seen helping passengers off the plane. The plane was taken to a hangar for inspection.

(With regard to a photo appearing to show fire trucks dousing passengers with water in the aisle, the fire department later released a statement saying the issue was with hydraulic fluid in the engine, not with actual fire.)

Passengers who suffered minor injuries were taken to local hospitals.

According to Flight Tracker, the plane was carrying at least 30 infants and toddlers, and with the children, all flights were canceled. Earlier this week, a cabin fire aboard an Air France flight sickened 185 people on board.

This article was corrected to reflect that the plane was carrying vaccines not vaccines.

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