Safety board to probe smoky WestJet flight to Nanaimo

NANAIMO — Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board are being sent to Vancouver Island to determine why thick smoke suddenly filled the cabin of a commuter plane travelling to Nanaimo.

A statement from the board said a team will gather information and assess what happened Tuesday afternoon onboard WestJet Encore flight 3161.

The Bombardier Q400 turboprop with 56 passengers and two crew aboard had almost completed its short hop from Vancouver to Nanaimo when smoke began wafting into the cabin.

Passenger Addison Becker said as conditions became smokier, the plane descended quickly.

It landed safely after the pilot declared an emergency, a procedure a spokeswoman for WestJet said establishes priority landing and also summons emergency vehicles. She said all passengers and crew fled the aircraft minutes after it touched down and no one was hurt.

Becker said passengers remained calm despite increasingly smoky conditions, but people pushed for the exits once the doors had been thrown open.

“It was freaky, but it wasn’t the worst thing that could happen,” he said.

The plane was to fly on to Comox and then back to Vancouver, but those legs of the flight were cancelled.