Court approves $18M settlement over 2015 Air Canada crash in Halifax

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia has approved an $18.075-million settlement in a class action arising from the crash of Air Canada Flight AC624 at Halifax Stanfield International Airport on March 29, 2015, reports the Chronicle Herald. 

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of passengers against Air Canada, Airbus, Nav Canada, the Halifax International Airport Authority, the Attorney General of Canada and the pilots.

It alleged the defendants were responsible for the crash and that passengers sustained injuries as a result. 

The case had been scheduled to go to trial earlier this year before the settlement was reached.

Air Canada will contribute $15.075 million, while Nav Canada will pay $2 million and the Halifax International Airport Authority will pay $1 million, according to the settlement agreement.

The settlement covers payments to passengers as well as administration fees, honoraria, legal fees, costs, taxes, interest and an allocation for claims from public health insurers. 

Legal fees total approximately $5.7 million.

There were 133 passengers aboard the flight. 

Two opted out of the class action, leaving 131 class members. 

Compensation was determined based on the type, severity and duration of each passenger’s physical and psychological injuries.

The plaintiffs were represented by Wagners, MacGillivray Law and Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman.

Ray Wagner of Wagners told the Chronicle Herald that the negotiated settlement does not include an admission or finding of liability against Air Canada, Nav Canada or the airport authority.

Of the 131 class members, 70 will receive payments of $10,000, $20,000 or $30,000 depending on their injuries, Wagner said.

The remaining passengers will receive amounts ranging from more than $30,000 to, in a small number of cases, hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Payments are expected to be issued within six weeks. 

Each passenger’s claim has already been assessed, meaning no additional claims process is required.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s investigation, released in 2017, found that the Airbus A320-211 struck power lines before hitting the ground approximately 740 feet short of the runway threshold.

The aircraft was travelling from Toronto and conducting a “non-precision approach” in poor weather when the crash occurred.

After striking an antenna array and touching the ground twice, the aircraft slid before coming to rest on the left side of the runway, about 1,900 feet beyond the threshold.

The TSB found that after selecting the flight path angle and beginning the descent, the flight crew did not monitor the aircraft’s altitude and distance from the runway threshold or adjust the flight path angle.

The crew did not recognize that the aircraft had “drifted below and diverged from the planned vertical descent angle flight profile, nor were they aware that the aircraft had crossed the minimum descent altitude further back from the threshold.”

Investigators also found that the approach and runway lights were not set to maximum brightness despite reduced visibility.

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