Air Canada flight partially catches fire after rough landing

A potentially disastrous situation unfolded at Halifax airport on Saturday evening when the wing of an Air Canada plane caught fire during its landing.

The plane, arriving from St. John’s, faced significant challenges as it touched down, resulting in a skid along the runway.

This led to a fire igniting on part of the aircraft, which temporarily halted operations at the airport.

PlatinumPost reports that the incident occurred hours before a major Jeju Airline plane’s crash that killed over 170 persons on Sunday morning in South Korea.

Nikki Valentine, a passenger on the Air Canada flight, described how one of the plane’s tires failed to deploy correctly upon landing.

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“The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud — what almost sounded like a crash sound — as the wing of the plane started to skid along the pavement, along with what I presume was the engine,” she recalled.

“The plane shook quite a bit and we started seeing fire on the left side of the plane and smoke started coming in the windows,” she added.

The incident occurred at roughly 9:30 p.m. local time, involving Air Canada Flight 2259, which was operated by PAL Airlines, according to an official statement from the airport.

Though the statement did not specify how many passengers were aboard, it confirmed that all individuals were safely evacuated and transported to a hangar, where paramedics provided medical attention.

Valentine estimated the plane had around 80 passengers, with a layout of about 20 rows and two seats on each side of the aisle. She noted that the flight was nearly at full capacity, and it took roughly two minutes for all passengers to exit the aircraft safely.

She further shared that one side of the plane was engulfed in flames, “so everyone was pretty much in a hurry to get off — but an organized hurry.”

Valentine also mentioned that, while the passengers appeared to be unharmed, they were visibly shaken by the ordeal.

Air Canada flight partially catches fire after rough landing

Israeli forces order new evacuation at besieged northern Gaza

CAIRO: Israeli forces carrying out a weeks-long offensive in northern Gaza ordered any residents remaining in Beit Hanoun to quit the town on Sunday, pointing to Palestinian militant rocket fire from the area, residents said.

The instruction to residents to leave caused a new wave of displacement, although it was not immediately clear how many people were affected, the residents said.

Israel says its almost three-month-old campaign in northern Gaza is aimed at Hamas militants and preventing them from regrouping. Its instructions to civilians to evacuate are meant to keep them out of harm’s way, the military says.

Palestinian and United Nations officials say no place is safe in Gaza and that evacuations worsen humanitarian conditions of the population.

Much of the area around the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Jabalia and Beit Lahiya has been cleared of people and razed, fueling speculation that Israel intends to keep the area as a closed buffer zone after the fighting in Gaza ends.

The Israeli military announced its new push into the Beit Hanoun area on Saturday.

The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service said it had lost communication with people still trapped in the town, and it was unable to send teams into the area because of the raid.

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On Friday, Israeli forces stormed the Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza. The military said it was being used by militants, which Hamas denies.

The raid on the hospital, one of three medical facilities on the northern edge of Gaza, put the last major health facility in the area out of service, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a post on X.

Some patients were evacuated from Kamal Adwan to the Indonesian Hospital, which is not in service, and medics were prevented from joining them there, the Health Ministry said. Other patients and staff were taken to other medical facilities.

On Sunday, health officials said an Israeli tank shell hit the upper floor of the Al-Ahly Arab Baptist Hospital in Gaza City near the X-ray division.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said Israeli military strikes across the enclave killed at least 16 people on Sunday. One of those strikes killed seven people and wounded others at Al-WAFA Hospital in Gaza City, the Palestinian civil emergency service said in a statement.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the report.

Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed more than 45,300 Palestinians, according to health officials in the Hamas-run enclave. Most of the population of 2.3 million has been displaced and much of Gaza is in ruins.

The war was triggered by Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza as hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Israeli forces order new evacuation at besieged northern Gaza

Kemi Badenoch political career may be in danger – Top diplomat

Comments by the Leader of the Opposition in the United Kingdom (UK), Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch, have sparked controversy in Nigeria with many outraged over the Leader of the Conservative Party statements which many interpreted as unpatriotic while some rose in her defence.

The British-Nigerian politician, who previously served in the UK Cabinet under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from 2022 to 2024, had made remarks that many Nigerians interpreted as offensive.

She replaced the party’s leader and immediate past UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, after winning 57 per cent of party members’ votes to defeat former immigration minister Robert Jenrick.

The election, which saw her emerge as the first Black leader of a UK-wide political party, followed Mr Sunak’s resignation from the position after the party failed in the July general election, which produced Keir Starmer of the Labour Party as the new Prime Minister.

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Her position places her as a potential Prime Minister of the UK.

Speaking with British media recently, Badenoch, who had earlier described her upbringing in Nigeria as being overshadowed by fear and insecurity in a country plagued by corruption, detached herself from Northern Nigeria, which she referred to as a haven for Islamism and Boko Haram.

“I find it interesting that everybody defines me as being Nigerian. I identify less with the country than with the specific ethnicity [Yoruba],” she said.

“I have nothing in common with the people from the north of the country, the Boko Haram where Islamism is.

“Being Yoruba is my true identity, and I refuse to be lumped with northern people of Nigeria, who ‘were our ethnic enemies, all in the name of being called a Nigerian.”

Kemi Badenoch political career may be in danger – Top diplomat