Plane seen swaying in high winds during landing at island airport

Video captured by CityNews shows a Porter Airlines plane being blown around as it landed at the island airport on Friday evening.

The plane, arriving from Newark, aborted its first landing at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport and was struggling to stay on course as it made a second attempt and landed safely just before 6:30 p.m.

“It was pretty scary actually,” said passenger Raj Singh.

“The second time around we were already kind of nervous. People were gasping.”

Singh said the aircraft dipped just before touching down and people were throwing up.

“I thought they were going to abort it again,” he said. “I was like there’s no way (the pilot) is going to try to land this plane. It was going left and right. It was pretty nuts.

“It was definitely scary. It was like being on a roller coaster … I didn’t think I was going to die, no. But it was uncomfortable.”

Although many flights appeared to be delayed, Ports Toronto said the airport was operating normally.

“Operations have been running as scheduled at Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport despite the high winds, which have died down significantly since earlier this evening,” it said in a statement. “Because the wind direction is aligned directly with the runway, flights are safely landing and taking off without issue.”

Pearson International Airport temporarily suspended flight operations on Friday evening due to the wind, but service has since resumed.

Earlier, Environment Canada issued a wind warning for much of southern Ontario, saying gusts could top 110 km/h.

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