The passengers and crew aboard the Air Canada plane that crash-landed during a snowstorm were lucky to have escaped serious injury, an expert has said.

An Air Canada plane made an abrupt landing in bad weather and skidded off the runway at the airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada officials said yesterday. They said 23 people were taken to a hospital for observation and treatment of minor injuries.

Some 22 people have been taken to hospital after an Air Canada plane made an “abrupt” landing and left the runway during bad weather.