WHEELS DOWN

Passengers Flee Boeing Jet by Emergency Slide After ‘Hard Landing’

The aircraft’s landing gear appears to have collapsed upon touching down.

More than 160 passengers were forced to exit a Boeing 737-800 by the aircraft’s emergency slides after its landing gear appears to have collapsed upon touching the runway. The 16-year-old WestJet plane, which took off from Toronto, was arriving at Sint Maarten in the Caribbean at roughly 5:30 p.m. when the incident took place on Sunday, prompting the dispatch of emergency services and firefighters to the scene. “The aircraft’s slides were activated, and all guests and crew safely evacuated and were transported to the terminal,” the airline said in a statement, adding the cause of what it said was a “hard landing” remains unknown as it awaits “confirmation on the exact nature of the incident.” The country’s tourism minister, Grisha Heylinger-Marten, expressed concern about the incident. “It was clear that more work needs to be done regarding protocols for situations like this. For most, this was the first real-world incident of this magnitude, not a drill,” she said. “A full debriefing meeting with all stakeholders will take place so lessons are learned and improvements are made.”