El-Al flight LY030 from Toronto to Tel Aviv took off yesterday at 5:53 pm from Pearson International airport Toronto time. It was a Boeing 767. At approximately 7:10 pm the airport command center received a mayday call from tower personnel. The flight was forced to return to Toronto due to engine failure.
Global News in Toronto knew about this first hand as Evan Daurio who works for Corus Entertainment was on board and Global News is a subsidiary of Corus Entertainment.
“We felt some sort of explosion…on the right side of the plane. The lights went off and everything kind of started to flicker a bit”, Evan said. We saw the crew running around and after a bit we were told that there was something wrong with the plane but we weren’t exactly sure what and that we were turning around and going back to Toronto” he said. He added that the atmosphere was “pretty tense”.
Another passenger Daniel Moir said he and his fellow passengers were worried but they tried to keep themselves distracted. One pilot came rushing down (the aisle) looking very worried which made us more worried too. All they said is there is a problem with the right engine and we were returning to Toronto,” Daniel wrote in an Email to Global News.
When the plane landed a fire truck pulled up along its right side. Arriving at the gate pasengers waited on the plane as the crew sought accommodations for them.
Airport Spokeswoman Natalie Moncur said; “We dispatched fire and emergency crews, they were on the scene to greet the plane when it landed and conduct an inspection of the plane to make sure it was safe”.
Thank G-d the emergency landing was successful and everyone is safe and sound.