Inaccurate transponder information and an unheard radio transmission factored in a 2020 runway incursion involving two airliners attempting takeoffs from Toronto Lester B. Pearson International Airport with a combined total of 446 passengers and crew, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) says.
No one was injured in the incident, in which an Air Canada Embraer ERJ 190 struck a bird soon after beginning a takeoff roll on Runway 06L. The pilots rejected the takeoff, and, as the Embraer 190 slowed at the far end of the runway, the crew of an Air Canada Boeing 777 — mistakenly believing that the Embraer had lifted off — began to accelerate for takeoff.
Within seconds, the 777 crew saw that the Embraer 190 was still on the runway and rejected their takeoff.
Both crews taxied the airplanes back to the terminal. Neither airplane was damaged in the incident.
In its final report on the incident, the TSB said that investigators found that the Embr…
