At least two Nova Scotia law firms are gearing up to sue Air Canada on behalf of passengers involved in the crash of Flight AC624 in Halifax on Sunday morning.
Macgillivray Injury and Insurance Law told CBC it has been instructed to file a suit on behalf of a passenger who wants to sue for physical and psychological trauma. The law firm says it has consulted with other passengers interested in filing a lawsuit as well.
Other than Air Canada, the lawsuit will also likely target Halifax Stanfield International Airport and Nav Canada, which operates the country’s air navigation system, CTV reports.
All 133 passengers aboard the flight survived, and no major injuries were reported, although 25 people were sent to hospital.
Serious injury lawyer Ray Wagner told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald his law firm is also preparing for legal action against Air Canada, and is looking at launching a class-action lawsuit.
Besides the physical injury and psychological trauma that passengers sustained, “the emergency measures were less than adequate,” Wagner said.
Although emergency crews arrived immediately at the site of the crash, passengers waited 50 minutes to an hour to be escorted off the snowy runway, news reports indicate.
The aircraft landed 1,100 feet short of the runway threshold at around 12:45 a.m. Sunday, severing power lines and causing a power outage around the airport that hampered response efforts.
Some backup generators at the airport failed, and it took until 2 a.m. to restore power to the terminal building, the Canadian Press reported.
