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In the early afternoon of Sunday September 7, an incident occurred during the landing of a WestJet Boeing 737 at Princess Juliana airport, Sint Maarten.
Traffic was interrupted for over 24 hours.
As with every incident involving a plane landing, the images are impressive. Nevertheless, the pilots of WestJet's Boeing 737-800, arriving from Toronto, Canada, handled the situation perfectly. Particularly when it was revealed that one of their aircraft's landing gears literally crashed as the plane touched down on the runway.
The incident occurred on Sunday September 7 at 1:29pm. When the wheels of the Boeing 737 touched down on the tarmac at Sint Maarten's Princess Juliana airport, one of the landing gear disappeared under the fuselage. The aircraft then slid for several dozen meters before coming to a halt. The apparent abruptness of the landing appears to have caused the landing gear to break off, puncturing the fuselage on the right wing.Emergency services intervened immediately and deployed foam as a precautionary measure," said the company in a statement on Sunday afternoon. The aircraft's evacuation slides were activated and all passengers and crew were safely taken to the terminal. All passengers are safe and no injuries have been reported. "However, the incident has had a significant impact on traffic.
Air France flight cancelled
On Sunday afternoon and Monday, until the runway was reopened at around 2 p.m., flights were suspended, and a technical team comprising experts and specialists was deployed to investigate the problem.and engineers, who arrived Monday morning from Calgary (Canada), inspected the damaged aircraft. They worked on evacuating and securing the runway so that operations could resume. "Our teams at Princess Juliana International Airport (PJIAE), as well as a specialized WestJet recovery team, are working hard to recover the damaged aircraft.ration WestJet, are working hard to safely remove the aircraft from the runway," said airport management in a statement released shortly after noon on Monday. Once the aircraft has been cleared and Sint Maarten Civil Aviation has completed the required inspection, flight operations will resume. "
Meanwhile, Air France chose on Sunday to cancel its flight from Paris on Monday, September 8. Passengers on Tuesday's flight were informed late Monday afternoon that they had been rebooked on Wednesday's flight. The journey from Juliana to Paris must have seemed a long one, as according to several passengers, the aircraft was packed "as if for a school vacation".
On Sunday, some of the passengers departing from Saint-Barthélemy who were due to board a flight at Juliana were directed to Grand Case airport in Saint-Martin. However, flights from Saint-Barth to Guadeloupe, Saint-Martin Grand Case and Puerto Rico were able to operate.
