Passenger upset with handling of plane going off runway incident

A passenger is voicing her displeasure with how the airport handled an incident that saw a Porter Airlines Dash 8 aircraft - carrying passengers back to the Sault from Toronto - skid off a Sault Airport runway late Sunday evening.

“We knew we were off the runway because the plane became bumpy and we looked out the window and all of a sudden we were seeing grass. We skidded. The plane came to a stop. The landing gear was stuck right in the mud,” Lisa Cachagee told SooToday on Monday.

“It took a while before we heard anything from the PA system. They said the runway was slippery due to the rain, that we had skidded off the runway and that we were to remain in our seats and remain calm.”

An hour passed before passengers were able to leave the plane and taken to the terminal by taxis, Cachagee said.  

“There wasn’t a flight attendant at the front of the plane to let us down the stairs. There was no assistance. There was no one there making sure that we didn’t slip or fall. There was no one there for elderly people. There was no one there for mothers with children. We exited the plane and there was one individual with a flashlight and that was it. There was one fire truck with a light on and it was so dark out."

Cachagee said that one elderly female passenger with a heart condition didn’t receive immediate medical attention.

Later, an employee behind the airport's car rental desk asked her if she wished for an ambulance to be called but she declined as her pain began to subside.

“I ended up in the hospital due to complications of not being able to inject my own medication," Cachagee said.

“For that to happen and not have any paramedics and only one fire truck with no extra lights, no security, there was no help - there was only one individual with a flashlight. I just don’t understand how an airport didn’t have the protocol for what happened. The airport was not equipped for what happened.”   

All passengers were able to retrieve their baggage after approximately one hour, Cachagee said.

Cachagee said Porter Airlines, in an email, informed her that the airline is investigating the incident and that a full refund for her flight would be issued to her.

Cachagee said she will be speaking with both the Sault Ste. Marie Airport and Porter Airlines regarding the incident.

“For us to be stranded on that plane, not knowing what is happening, having one individual with a flashlight and having to walk through that wet grass and mud, people with canes, all of us helping each other to get to the taxis, it’s beyond me.”  

“There has to be answers to the questions I want to ask in regards to personnel and emergency vehicles that should've been there checking on people, like myself as a cancer patient,” Cachagee said.

“I’m pleased that the outcome is that we all walked off that airplane and that is the one thing in my heart that makes me feel a great deal of pleasure, seeing everyone get to those taxicabs. It could’ve ended up worse.”

“Our information was that everybody on board was safe and that there were no injuries so we didn’t have a full response to the aircraft until we went out to bring them in with the limousines,” responded Terry Bos, Sault Ste. Marie Airport Development Corporation president and CEO.

“I spoke with Porter this morning and they were going to be reaching out to the passengers. We don't know anyone who was on the aircraft. The airport doesn’t get manifests so we can’t reach out to anybody who was on the plane because we don’t know who was on it. That’s confidential between the airline and the passengers.”

Bos said he and Sault Ste. Marie Airport are willing to hear any concerns from the Porter flight’s passengers.

“We always listen. The airline’s passengers are our passengers.” 

The cause of the airplane's runway skid is being investigated.

“The Transportation Safety Board is currently gathering information and assessing the incident. A full investigation will be conducted if it is determined that there is a potential to advance transportation safety. It is too early now to say what the causes and contributing factors might be,” wrote TSB spokesperson Sophie Wistaff in an email.