Multimillion-dollar class-action settlement reached in 2015 Halifax crash landing

HALIFAX – A Nova Scotia law firm says it’s reached an $18-million settlement with Air Canada and other defendants in a class-action lawsuit following a crash landing in Halifax a decade ago. 

Air Canada Flight 624 from Toronto struck power lines during a snowstorm at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in March 2015, causing the plane to land about 200 metres short of the runway.

Twenty-five of the 133 passengers on board were injured.

Ray Wagner is the founder of one of the three law firms working on the case. He said Air Canada will be paying the bulk of the settlement if the court approves it. 

“We are satisfied the matter has been resolved,” the airline said in an emailed statement. 

Defendants NAV Canada and the Halifax International Airport Authority will pay lesser amounts that will be disclosed in later court filings, Wagner said. The airport authority declined to comment with the case still before the court. 

French plane manufacturer Airbus and Transport Canada were also named in the lawsuit but won’t be paying into the settlement, said Wagner. 

Payouts to passengers will vary based on their injuries, he said. They range from scrapes and bruises to things like knee, back and shoulder injuries, along with post-traumatic stress. 

“It’s a pretty traumatic event to have a crash where the engine falls off the nose of the plane and you spend 50 minutes on the tarmac waiting for rescue,” Wagner said in an interview. 

“This is a major traumatic event, so it has caused major physiological harm to almost everybody to some degree.”

A 45-day trial had been scheduled to begin next month. 

If accepted by the court, the settlement would also cover legal fees and expenses. Nova Scotia’s MacGillivray Law also represented passengers in the case. The MacGillivray and Wagner firms also brought on Vancouver-based Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman LLP to work on the case because of its aviation expertise. 

Wagner said the 10 years of legal work, including a three-year battle to gain access to the cockpit recorder that went to the Supreme Court of Canada, means the payouts should be disbursed relatively quickly. 

“It’s a fair and reasonable settlement and hopefully the class members will agree,” said Wanger. 

The Transportation Safety Board’s final investigation report, released two years after the incident, said the plane was circling the airport just after midnight on Mar. 29, 2025, when the crew was told visibility had improved to just under one kilometre, the minimum needed for landing. 

The plane was placed in autopilot as it approached the airport, with the flight crew relying on the “localizer” radio beacon which provides lateral guidance to align the aircraft with the runway’s centre line. It does not provide information on altitude.

The board said the pilots did not take into account a headwind that was pushing the plan off its intended flight path. The report said Air Canada’s standard operating procedures at the time did not require the flight crew to cross-check their altitude and distance, a procedural gap that has since been closed. 

The report cited several other factors, including problems with runway lighting.

Realizing the danger, the captain poured on the thrust and pulled back on the stick to gain altitude, but it was too late.

A second later, one of the jet’s tires hit an approach light about 260 metres from the runway. The aircraft clipped some power lines, knocking out power to the airport. The jet’s main landing gear and left engine then struck a snowbank and the Airbus 320-211 smashed into an antenna array before bouncing twice along the runway for another 600 metres in a shower of sparks and leaking fuel.

The landing gear collapsed, an engine was torn off, but there was no fire.

“Because no emergency was expected, the passengers and cabin crew were not in a brace position at the time of the initial impact,” the report said. “Most of the injuries sustained by the passengers were consistent with not adopting a brace position.”

Since the crash, the airport has upgraded navigation and lighting infrastructure.

Some passengers said they waited for more than an hour for emergency responders as they stood outside huddled against blowing snow in temperatures around -6 C. The airport has said passengers waited up to 50 minutes for help and that firefighters were on scene within 90 seconds.

The board said recovery of the uninjured passengers was delayed by the severe weather and the failure of the airport’s two standby generators. Without backup power, the airport’s radio network failed, making it difficult to arrange for transportation after emergency responders declared the site clear for an evacuation.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2025.