Air Canada flight plummets 25,000 feet - Second massive altitude drop for airline in a month

RT
Sat, 30 Jan 2016 03:40 UTC

© Michael Dalder / Reuters

A passenger on board an Air Canada flight from New Jersey to Vancouver captured the terrifying moment when the plane suddenly dropped in altitude and its oxygen masks were deployed. The emergency was prompted by a loss in pressure.

Graphs from online flight monitoring software showed AC549 plummeting from more than 35,000 feet (10,000 meters) to just above 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).

And that's the graphical representation of a 23000 foot rapid descent over the course of 5 minutes. #ac549 #scary pic.twitter.com/cWWks2yhbp

— Paul Karwatsky (@PKarwatskyCTV) January 30, 2016

Business advisor and self-described frequent flyer Milun Tesovic did not lose his nerve, however, and snapped a photo of the scene, showing oxygen masks hanging all across the salon.

"#AC549 @aircanada that sucked. Lost pressure at 36k feet, rapid descend to 10k with masks on," Tesovic tweeted with a picture.

#AC549 @aircanada that sucked. Lost pressure at 36k feet, rapid descend to 10k with masks on pic.twitter.com/188c9xYOGd

— Milun Tesovic (@miluntesovic) January 30, 2016

The flight was diverted to Toronto, where it landed without incident.

#ac549 @flightradar24 #rapiddecompression. Watch altitude, UTC time, and flt path pic.twitter.com/JgcrRPaYIF

— R Sonny Sampayan (@rsonnysampayan) January 30, 2016

Air Canada said that the incident occurred due to a pressurization problem with one of the plane's air-conditioning units. It also confirmed in a tweet that arrangements had been made for passengers trying to make their way to Vancouver.

AC549 landed normally YYZ w/o incident due to pressurization problem w/ AC unit. Arrangements made for customers to continue to YVR asap.

— Air Canada (@AirCanada) January 30, 2016

The author of the photo, who by then had attracted the attention of many Canadian media outlets, later noted that the crew "did a great job," and no one appeared to have been hurt. He added in another tweet saying that his new flight, AC33, was already on its way to Vancouver.

Comment: Last month an Air Canada flight encountered freak turbulence in the skies above Alaska, injuring over 20 people on the Shanghai - Toronto route. Although the cause of the turbulence remains unclear, one Canadian specialist theorized that breaking "gravity waves" were a likely culprit.

Meanwhile, last week an American Airlines plane had to divert to Canada from its Europe-bound flight after encountering severe turbulence over the Atlantic.