Experts unsure what caused 'chaos' on Air Canada Flight 190 Mike Aivaz and Adam Doster

Published: Friday January 11, 2008



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Print This Email This Without warning or reports of turbulence, an Air Canada flight en route to Toronto dipped and rotated violently, on early Thursday morning, causing injuries and confusion among passengers and the crew. Strangely enough, flight experts are still unsure about what caused the accident. "What happened aboard Air Canada flight 190," said a reporter on CBC's The National, "can best be described as chaos." According to passenger accounts, the Airbus aircraft bucked and rolled side to side abruptly, hurling dishes and people through the air. "It was weird," one passenger told the CBC. "The plane actually turned upside down without actually feeling it. There were people on the roof. Coffe and shit [was] flying all over the plane." After steadying the plane, the pilots were able to make an emergency landing in Calgary under their own power. Ten of the 88 people aboard were injured, even though the episode was over in 15 seconds. All have since been released from the hospital. So what caused the jolt? Immediately following the event, the pilot announced that the plane's autopilot program had been knocked out. But others aren't convinced. "I don't think it could have been anything other than turbulence," a Canadian corporate pilot told the CBC. "It's highly unlikely that it could have been a mechanical problem." Air Canada says that the Transportation Safety Board Read the whole story is investigating, but turbulence seems plausible. In the upper atmosphere, where many commercial jet liners like Flight 190 cruise, conditions exist where pilots cannot predict wind patterns that can lead to turbulence. The following video is from CBC's The National, broadcast on January 10, 2007



