The group Advocates for Safer Airports in Canada is calling on the Transportation Safety Board to review various airport emergency plans after recent incidents in Montreal and Halifax.

Chair Chris Bussey says they are concerned about the adequacy of emergency preparedness at Canadian airports, particularly in the wake of the incidents at Montreal’s Mirabel airport, and at Halifax’s Stanfield airport last weekend.

Both involved issues with landing gear, but there were no injuries.

Nonetheless, Bussey says they’re urging the TSB to assess plans at primary incident sites and at connecting and diversion airports to ensure passenger safety and compliance with International Civil Aviation Organization standards.

“When you look at the Halifax incident, they had responses from five or six fire stations within the Halifax regional fire district, and the closest as I understand is 15 minutes away,” says Bussey, a former St. John’s airport firefighter. “So that took the resources away from the communities for a period of time, to cover a responsibility that clearly falls upon the airport for an aviation incident.”

Last weekend’s St. John’s-Halifax flight had a hard, fiery arrival when the landing gear malfunctioned, forcing the roughly 70 passengers and crew to evacuate after coming to a stop. Officials are also investigating whether debris on a runway in St. John’s came from the same plane.

Meanwhile, a lecturer in airline management at McGill University says one thing that stands out for him is the professionalism of the crew in stopping the airplane quickly and evacuating everybody, as there had been a fire in the wing area.

John Gradek says getting off the plane quickly in such situations is essential.

“There has been some conversation in terms of people trying to grab their carry-on bags from the overhead bins before evacuating. To me, that would be the only stain that would be on this evacuation,” he said.

The TSB is investigating both incidents.