Air Canada flight unable to land in St. John's: returned to Toronto

Earlier this week, an Air Canada flight experienced significant trouble landing at St. John's Airport, ending a six-hour flight from Toronto to Toronto.

Story: Air Canada flight fails to land in St. John's: Returned to Toronto…

Air Canada flight AC698 is a regularly scheduled flight between Toronto and St. John's, operated by C-GEKH on the affected route.

According to Planespotters.net, C-GEKH is a 4.9-year-old Boeing 737 MAX 8 that was delivered to the Canadian carrier after long-term storage before delivery in October 2021.

The Canadian carrier's fleet of the 737 MAX 8 has 40 of them, all in active service, and the average age of the fleet is 5.1 years.

Air Canada flight AC698 departed Toronto at 2204 local time on February 5 and headed east to St. John's.

The approach to the airport began normally, but in the final stage of the approach, the Boeing 737 MAX 8 entered the holds for some time due to bad weather.

Noticing that the situation had not changed for the better, the crew climbed to cruising altitude and headed west back to their starting airport.

Due to land in Nova Scotia, the Air Canada flight landed back in Toronto at 0424 local time the next morning, a staggering six hours and 19 minutes after it should have taken just over three hours.

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