News
Wake from passing plane probed as possible cause of sudden plane drop last week: NTSB

Jan.  16, 2008, Montreal – The wake from a passing plane is a likely cause of the
sudden descent of an Air Canada Airbus en route to Toronto from
Victoria last week, the Calgary Sun reported Wednesday.

Transport Canada investigators are looking at that possibility as
they probe the  incident last Thursday near the Kootenay mountains
in southeastern B.C. _ at the edge of American airspace.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is being asked to
supply navigational recordings from the area where the incident
occurred, said Real Levasseur, the Transportation Safety Board of
Canada's Chief of Investigations.

The plane made an emergency landing in Calgary, where 10
passengers and crew were taken to hospital.

Levasseur said there was a “high probability that an external
force may have caused the incident.''

Wake turbulence generated by another craft could be to blame,
though Levasseur refused to speculate on what type of plane could
have caused it.