Canada-bound flight makes emergency landing in Dublin Airport after major tech issue

An Air Canada flight from Venice to Toronto was forced to make an emergency landing in Dublin Airport yesterday following a major technical issue aboard the aircraft.

The flight (AC819 /ACA819), which left from Venice airport shortly after 4pm on Thursday, made the emergency landing in Ireland at around 7pm due to a hydraulics issue aboard the commercial Airbus A330-300.

Fire crews awaited the aircraft as it landed on the runway in Dublin, which lost nose steering as soon as it touched the ground. No injuries from passengers or staff were recorded.

The aircraft, with no steering of its own, needed to be towed off of the runway by a tug, which took over 20 minutes to arrive. The knock-on effect meant that dozens of arriving flights were delayed, as only one runway was in use for this period.

Hydraulic systems of some description are present on virtually all aircraft types, and in larger and more complex aircraft multiple systems may be used to provide the ‘muscle’ to operate a wide variety of components and systems.

For example, these could include primary and secondary flight controls, the landing gear, nosewheel steering, wheel brakes, thrust reversers and cargo doors.

As such hydraulics issues are a major concern for flights, as depending on the specific failure or the extent of damage to the hydraulic systems, it could lead to full loss of control for pilots or difficulty in operating landing gear.