I was up in Ft. McMurray at our site yesterday meeting with some people and traveling around taking a look at various activities. My flight was scheduled to leave at 6:30pm which would put me back into Calgary around 8:10pm. A relatively early evening with which I planned to spend sleeping due to the lack of sleep I had the two previous nights. It was a smaller corporate charter plane (about 36 people or so) and I was there pretty early so I got my choice of seat. I choose the emergency exit row because its always nice to have more room.
The plane took off shortly after 6, I was given my instructions on how to open the emergency exit (as is custom with those who take up space in that row) and then I spent the beginning of the flight just reading and relaxing. After about 45minutes or so I look out the window and could have sworn the town below looked exactly like Ft. McMurray. As I was just trying to search my brain for where in Alberta we could be flying over the captain of the plane comes on the speaker. He explains that there has been a hydraulic leak and we need to land back in Ft. McMurray, but first we had to fly around and burn off some fuel. No problem I thought, so I just sat back and closed my eyes while we circled about. I was starting to doze off when there was a tap on my knee, it was the stewardess, she explained that she needed me to stay awake and asked me to remind her how I would open the emergency exit should the need arise. I repeated back what I had been told previously and watched and she returned to the front and pulled out some of her procedure manuals and began reading through them. I also noticed that she asked a gentleman sitting at the front of the plane to move seats so that he could open the third emergency exit if needed.
Just around 7:30pm the pilot once again addressed us and explained that he would now be landing the plane, that all backup systems were functioning but just to be precautious the flight attendant would run through emergency procedures with us once more and that emergency vehicles had been called out to the run way just in case there are any problems. The flight attendant went through procedures with us, including how to brace ourselves in the event of a rough landing and reminded us that should we need an emergency evacuation to leave all our belongings behind.
The plane came into the airport and touched down, the pilot immediately hit the brakes to slow the plane as quickly as possible, it was a hard stop but we made it in okay. The pilot turned the planed off the runway onto the taxi way and towards the end of the planes stop he directed it onto a grassy area. We found out later that the reason for this turn onto the grass was because there were no longer any brakes and that was how the plane was to be put to a final stop. There were emergency vehicles and we were taken off the plane out there on the runway and shuttled into the airport.
Corporate Express was quick to try and find other means for us to return to Calgary, this meant flying in two planes to carry us all back. The first flight left at 10:15 and the second, the plane I flew home one, left at 11:30pm. This put me back into Calgary at 1:30am. It was a long night and I didn’t get the sleep I expected, but I have a pretty interesting story. The staff at Corporate Express were very helpful and did all they could to get us home as quickly as possible, and they brought in some pizza for dinner for us. It was an bit of an intimidating experience, and one I would rather not repeat, but it turned out well and we all made it home safely.