NTSB investigates Air Canada Rouge jet’s short landing at Nashville

Nashville's runway 20L is 8,000 feet long with no displaced threshold, making all of it available for landings. A 2019 master plan update for Nashville International Airport indicates that runway 20L includes a Runway Safety Area (RSA) extending 1,000 feet beyond its end and a Runway Object Free Area (ROFA), designed to keep above-ground hazards away from landing zones.

Last year at Nashville International Airport, another safety incident occurred when an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 had to abort takeoff after a Southwest aircraft was cleared to cross its path. The Alaska jet had to brake suddenly and blew out its tires during the maneuver.

The Airbus A319 involved in Thursday’s event is registered as C-GSJB and was delivered new to Air Canada in 2002. It seats up to 136 passengers across business and economy classes. This airframe is currently on lease from US-based lessor Aircastle Limited and is reported by ch-aviation data as having over 65,000 flight hours and around 22,500 cycles since entering service.

Air Canada Rouge operates one of Canada's oldest A319 fleets with an average age over 27 years for these jets; most were originally delivered in the late 1990s before joining Rouge between 2013 and 2014. In total, Rouge operates a fleet that includes Airbus A319-100s (18 aircraft), Airbus A320-200s (5 aircraft), and Airbus A321-200s (17 aircraft), alongside other types such as previously operated Boeing 767s which were returned during the COVID pandemic.

Simple Flying has reached out to Air Canada for comment on this story and will provide updates as they become available.

Air Canada Rouge serves as Air Canada's leisure brand subsidiary.