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Air Canada CEO Michael Rousseau is stepping down after facing heated backlash for a video statement he made almost entirely in English after a fatal plane crash earlier this month – snubbing Montreal’s official language of French. Rousseau, who became CEO in 2021 and served in top positions at the airline for nearly two decades, told the board he will retire by the end of the third quarter of 2026, Air Canada said in a statement Monday. Asked whether Rousseau’s retirement is tied to the backlash, an Air Canada spokesperson said Rousseau “has reached a natural retirement age” and that...

A devastating runway collision at LaGuardia Airport has raised serious questions about how multiple layers of aviation safety broke down at once. In this episode, Captain Steeeve reacts to the latest NTSB update on the Air Canada Express CRJ-900 crash involving a Port Authority vehicle on the runway. With new details emerging from cockpit voice recordings, ATC communications, and ground radar systems, this incident is shaping up to be a classic example of how accidents rarely come down to a single mistake. From the timing of the runway crossing clearance — issued just seconds before impact — to the limitations...

Captain Steeeve breaks down the tragic runway collision at LaGuardia Airport involving an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 and an airport fire vehicle. Late Sunday night, an arriving regional jet collided with a fire truck that had been cleared to cross the runway — with ATC audio capturing last-second calls to stop just moments before impact. The result was catastrophic, claiming the lives of both pilots and injuring dozens more. In this episode, Captain Steeeve walks through what we know so far, including the sequence of events, how runway incursions happen, and the multiple layers of safety that are designed to...

An Air Canada Flight 8646 was involved in an incident at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night, according to initial reports. Authorities say the aircraft, carrying more than 100 passengers from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, struck a fire truck while taxiing after landing. Emergency crews responded quickly to the scene. Initial reports indicated multiple injuries, though officials have not confirmed the extent or severity. The cause of the incident remains under investigation, and authorities have not released further details. SNIP

Air Canada flight lands with broken landing gear at Halifax. Only minor injuries reported Air Canada Express Flight 2259, operated by PAL Airlines, with 77 people on board sustained a gear collapse as it landed at Halifax Stanfield International Airport Saturday night causing a fire

A Canadian tribunal has ruled that Air Canada must pay damages to one of its passengers for misleading advice given by its customer service chatbot, which resulted in the passenger paying nearly double for their plane tickets. The case centered on the experience of Jake Moffatt, who flew round-trip from Vancouver to Toronto after his grandmother died in 2022. At the time, Moffatt visited Air Canada’s website to book a flight using the company’s bereavement rates. According to tribunal documents, Moffatt specifically asked Air Canada’s support chatbot about bereavement rates and received the following reply: “Air Canada offers reduced bereavement...

Air Canada has been forced to apologize after a man with spastic cerebral palsy was forced to drag himself off a plane when the flagship carrier failed to provide a wheelchair for him. Rodney Hodgins, 49, a hardware salesman from British Columbia who requires the use of a motorized wheelchair, flew to Las Vegas with his wife, Deanna, to celebrate their anniversary in August. But when the plane landed, the flight attendant told the couple there wasn’t time to get a wheelchair on board before the plane had to prepare for takeoff again, Deanna Hodgins wrote in a recent Facebook...

A lawsuit offers a glimpse into the victim’s view of the April heist, though the case remains unsolved.. For six months, the disappearance of $17.2 million in gold bars and cash from a warehouse at Toronto Pearson International Airport has remained a mystery. Now a lawsuit has given the public a glimpse into the victim’s view of the heist. ... While the case remains unsolved, a lawsuit has now filled in several of the blanks surrounding the robbery with still unproven allegations. The lawsuit was brought by Brink’s, the armored car company hired to move the cash and gold bars...

Air Canada grounded a pilot after social media sleuths revealed he posted a string of anti-Semitic messages across his various accounts, which have since been deleted. The outrage comes in the aftermath of Hamas's brutal assault on Israel last weekend. First Officer Mostafa Ezzo, who is based out of Montreal, even posted a photo showing him in his uniform with a Palestinian flag. Ezzo piloted a B787 aircraft. 'We are aware of the unacceptable posts made by an Air Canada pilot. We are taking this matter very seriously, and he was taken out of service on Mon, Oct. 9. We...

Security escorted two Air Canada passengers off a plane after refusing to sit in a seat someone had vomited in, according to a woman who says she was seated in the row behind them. In an August 29 Facebook post, passenger Susan Benson said she watched two women and a man " struggle to get seated" on the flight from Las Vegas to Montreal, Canada. Benson wrote in her post that she noticed "a bit of a foul smell" but hadn't yet realized where it was coming from. Soon, though, she said she learned someone had thrown up on the...

After tracking their lost luggage for four months with an AirTag, one Ontario couple was shocked to learn that Air Canada had allegedly donated their suitcase to a charity. After sitting in a storage facility in Montreal for four weeks, Rees said they finally watched their bag being shipped to a facility in Etobicoke in the GTA. “We got really excited because we’re like ‘Oh it’s coming back to Toronto, it’s going to go to a processing facility, this is awesome,'” Rees said. However, the suitcase remained there for more than three months. In the meantime, Rees says that Air...

Air Canada has confirmed that a passenger aboard one of its flights from Montreal to Vancouver on Valentine's Day has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The airline said health authorities confirmed the case on Feb. 22, more than a week after the flight. Air Canada says it's working with public health authorities and has taken "all recommended measures."

Air Canada announced last week that it will no longer use the phrase "ladies and gentlemen" on board its flights. The policy is part of a "commitment to respect sexual identity, diversity, and inclusion," the company said in an internal memo. Instead of the gender-specific "ladies and gentlemen" (and "mesdames et messieurs" -- all announcements on Air Canada are in English and French), flight attendants are to address passengers as "everybody" and "tout le monde." LGBTQ groups are delighted. Most other people are not. Needless to say, Air Canada never polled its passengers or its employees. The left believes in...

Many airlines are making efforts to be more inclusive. For example, earlier this year we saw airlines for the first time add a non-binary gender option when booking travel, including the option to select “X” as your gender (rather than “M” or “F”). Air Canada is largely a progressive airline, and La Presse reports on an internal memo that has been sent to employees. Currently Air Canada’s flight attendants, gate agents, and pilots, refer to passengers as “ladies and gentlemen” when making announcements, but they’ll soon be updating their phrasing to be more gender neutral.

Tiffani Adams said she fell asleep while flying from Quebec to Toronto on 9 June. When she woke up, she was freezing cold and still buckled into her seat, but the aircraft was parked. Ms Adams managed to call her friend Deanna Dale to let her know where she was when her phone died less than a minute into the call. She was unable to charge her phone as the plane had been shut down. Ms Dale called Toronto Pearson Airport and told them of Ms Adams' whereabouts. While she was on board, Ms Adams managed to locate a torch...

Global airlines are obeying Beijing’s demands to refer to Taiwan explicitly as a part of China, despite the White House’s call this month to stand firm against such “Orwellian nonsense.” The Associated Press found 20 carriers, including Air Canada, British Airways and Lufthansa, that now refer to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing considers Chinese territory, as a part of China on their global websites. There are just three days left for dozens of foreign airlines to decide whether to comply with Beijing’s orders, or face consequences that could cripple their China business, including legal sanctions. Many have already sided...

The Federal Aviation Authority is investigating why an Air Canada plane ignored repeated orders by an air traffic controller at San Francisco International Airport to abort a landing over the weekend. Air Canada flight 781 from Montreal was given initial clearance to land but the air traffic controller then gave six orders to 'go around' and abort its landing because it believed another plane may still have been on the runway. The pilot landed the plane anyway.

An Air Canada Airbus A320 attempting to land last month in San Francisco very narrowly avoided hitting several other taxiing airliners... As it approached San Francisco International Airport to land on July 7, Air Canada Flight 759 mistakenly lined up with a taxiway where four planes were waiting, instead of a runway. The captain of the Airbus A320 aborted the landing.... ... As Flight 759 passed over the first airliner, a United Airlines Boeing 787, the Air Canada crew aborted its landing. The crew commanded full power from the engines. At that point, it was just 85 feet above the...

SAN FRANCISCO — In what one aviation expert called a near-miss of what could have been the largest aviation disaster ever, an Air Canada pilot on Friday narrowly avoided a tragic mistake: landing on the San Francisco International Airport taxiway instead of the runway. Sitting on Taxiway C shortly before midnight were four airplanes full of passengers and fuel awaiting permission to take off, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the “rare” incident. An air traffic controller sent the descending Air Canada Airbus 320 on a “go-around” — an unusual event where pilots must pull up and...

A French bulldog named Simba is probably alive today because of the attentiveness of an Air Canada pilot. Simba was flying via Air Canada Flight 85 from Tel Aviv to Toronto when the pilot noticed a problem with the cargo area’s heating system, according to CNN Canadian affiliate City News. Simba’s owner, German Kontorovich, was in the cabin. “As soon as the crew became aware of the temperature issue, the captain grew rightfully concerned for the dog’s comfort and well-being,” Air Canada spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick told CNN via email. “With the altitude it can become very uncomfortable, and possibly the...