Air Canada 80-minute flight to nowhere blamed on baggage door issue

An 80-minute Air Canada flight from Vancouver to Portland became an 80-minute flight from Vancouver to Vancouver on Sunday night, after the de Havilland Dash 8-400 twin-turboprop aircraft went into a series of looping turns, eventually settling back at the airport from which it had originally taken off. A baggage door was blamed for the mishap.

Jazz Flight 8654 is a daily trip from Vancouver to Portland operated under contract to Air Canada. The 400-kilometre journey generally lasts a little over an hour, and follows a route due south from Vancouver International Airport to Portland International Airport in Oregon.

However, after Sunday’s flight left at 9 p.m. local time, it almost immediately turned southwest and then north, flying in a long loop over the southern part of Vancouver Island before finally turning south again. Then, just before crossing over the border with America, the plane made a sharp turn back to the north, landing back in Vancouver at 10:20 p.m.

A spokesperson for Jazz told the National Post: “On Air Canada Express flight 8654 Sunday night, the flight crew received an indication about the baggage door during takeoff prompting them to follow standard procedure and return to Vancouver, where they landed safely. We sincerely apologize to passengers for the disruption.”

The spokesperson added that the indication might have been a false alarm, “but would result in the same standard operating procedure: a safe return to the airport to investigate.”

The path of the aircraft can be seen on FlightAware, a flight-tracking web site, which estimates the plane flew more than 400 kilometres on its flight to nowhere. The airline plans to try again Monday night.

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