Summary
- Passengers on an Air Canada Jazz flight reported a burning odor, and the crew decided to return to Montreal for safety and inspection.
- The replacement aircraft, C-FTJZ, was used to shuttle stranded passengers and experienced significant delays.
- The original aircraft, C-GJHZ, remained on the apron at Montreal overnight before returning to scheduled service the next day.
On September 30th, passengers onboard an Air Canada Jazz (Express) flight between Montreal, Quebec, and Sydney, Nova Scotia, reported the smell of a burning odor shortly after takeoff before returning quickly to Montreal airport.
The flight had departed behind schedule from the Quebecois province. The crew noted the burning odor as the aircraft gained altitude 10,000 feet above the second largest franco-phone speaking city. The crew donned oxygen masks before touching down safely on runway 24R shortly after departure.
The specifics
According to Flightradar24.com, flight QK94 was pushed back from Montreal Pierre Trudeau International Airport (YUL) at 13:20, some 25 minutes behind its scheduled departure time of 12:55. The service, bound for Nova Scotia’s J.A. Douglas McCurdy Sydney Airport (YQY), the service was expected to arrive at 15:55.
While in flight, the odor was noticed, and the crew made the informed decision to return to Montreal for safety and further inspection. The flight touched safely on at YUL only 18 minutes after takeoff (13:38).
The aircraft, C-GJHZ, then remained on the apron overnight and resumed operation on October 1st as AC8851, a direct trans-border service between Montreal and Minneapolis St Paul. This flight operated without as much drama, apart from a 28-minute delay on departure. The aircraft remained overnight at MSP before facilitating an early morning service to Toronto Pearson (YYZ).
Replacement service for Nova Scotians
With the CRJ-900 able to sit up to 76 passengers (12 in business and 64 in economy), Air Canada quickly provided a replacement service to shuttle the stranded passengers in Montreal, with C-FTJZ stepping in.
Initially, the replacement service was scheduled to depart at 15:30. However, it only became wheels up at 17:07, meaning passengers eventually arrived in Sydney by 19:33. Evidently, this delayed the return service substantially, then departing as QK93 at 20:17, instead of 16:35, and arrived in Montreal at 20:42 instead of 17:45.
The replacement aircraft, C-FTJZ, was first delivered to Jazz Aviation on August 3rd, 2005, and has been in service for 18.2 years, connecting regional Canada and trans-border operations to the northern United States.
C-GJHZ
The aircraft, operated under the Jazz Air brand locally in Montreal, was delivered in June 2020 and is the backbone of the airline’s regional services. According to data obtained from ch-Aviation, the Bombardier CRJ900LR is one of 35 in the fleet, operating such routes as Minneapolis to Toronto, Ottawa to Montreal, or Vancouver to Regina. The aircraft holds the registration C-GJHZ and serial number 15486.
Sources: Flightradar24.com (C-GJHZ), Flightradar24.com (C-FTJZ), ch-Aviation