Aircraft

Archived air traffic control transmissions have captured the moment an Air France crew reported to Montreal tower controllers that their Boeing 747-400 had come off the runway during a minor landing incident yesterday.

The aircraft had been operating flight AF346 from Paris Charles de Gaulle, and landed at around 17:45.

At about 15min 12s into the recording controllers clear a Westjet aircraft, operating flight 204, to land on runway 24R.

But about 20s later the Air France crew, speaking in French, tells the tower that their jet has “exited the runway” and the aircraft’s engines have been idled, and requests the attention of emergency services.

The tower controller responds by ordering Westjet 204 to abort its approach, climb on the runway heading to 3,000ft because of “traffic on the runway”.

Images from the scene show the 747 with its nose-wheel off the right side of the runway, in the grass. The incident was relatively minor and no damage has been reported. None of the 490 passengers and 18 crew members said to be on board was injured.

Listen to the Air Traffic Control recording of Air France 747 accident