A Canadian airliner carrying 304 people across the Atlantic glided to an emergency landing without engine power Friday, bursting tires when it hit the runway and injuring 10 passengers, officials said.
There was a danger the Air Transat Airbus A330 would ditch in the ocean after a fuel leak developed, officials said, but the pilot managed to land at the Lajes airport on Terciera Island in the Azores, 900 miles off the coast of Portugal.
"Only the pilot's skill prevented a tragedy," Mr Alfredo Cruz, a commander at Lajes Field, a US Air Force base on the island, told the Portuguese news agency Lusa.
"With the engines shut down, the plane glided over open water for several minutes before reaching the runway," said Mr Ricardo Barros, the vice president of Portugal's civil protection agency in the Azores.
"The flight attendants were hysterical. One of them was swearing, and the one making the announcement that we had to make an emergency landing sounded very scared," said passenger Mr Daniel Rodrigues, 24, of Toronto. "Once people heard her voice, all the old people started praying."
The plane's wheels burst into flame and fuel spilled onto the runway when it touched down, Mr Barros said. Frightened passengers fled the plane via emergency chutes. Ten people were slightly injured.
The jet was en route from Toronto to Lisbon with 291 passengers and 13 crew members aboard. Michel Lemay, a spokesman for the Montreal-based charter airline, said both engines were shut down when it landed.
But he said it was "too early to say if it's an engine problem or a fuel problem or another problem."
Mr Antonio Costa-Coelho, the chief of staff at Lajes airport, also praised the pilot as "very cool."
"He reached the runway without the engines and made the landing. He had to pull very hard on the brakes, so he made a little fire in the tires and made some damage on the runway," Mr Costa-Coelho said.
The incident also prompted Transport Canada to send a team of investigators to the Azores and step up monitoring Air Transat's operations to ensure compliance with safety requirements.
It was the second recent problem with an Air Transat plane. On August 18th, the 338 people aboard a Lockheed L-1011 jumbo jet were evacuated after smoke poured the cabin as it moved into takeoff position at Orlando International Airport. The pilot braked hard and ordered everyone to leave the plane on the emergency slides. Two people suffered minor injuries.
Air Transat specializes in charter flights from several Canadian and European cities to vacation destinations.
AP