Same plane, different day: Smoke causes WestJet plane to return to Calgary

CALGARY – A WestJet plane flying to Toronto made an emergency landing at the Calgary airport on Friday due to smoke inside the cabin.

It was the same plane that made an emergency landing in the city 24 hours earlier due to the same problem.

WestJet (TSX:WJA) said in a statement that a maintenance problem with the air conditioning caused smoke to go into the aircraft, but it quickly dissipated.

The company said the crew declared an emergency as a precaution and the plane returned to Calgary and landed safely.

WestJet said declaring an emergency does not necessarily mean there is an emergency on board, but it gives a plane priority landing with emergency vehicles on scene if required.

On Thursday, the same aircraft, which was flying to Phoenix, had to divert back to Calgary due to smoke.

"The aircraft was removed from service after yesterday’s landing and maintenance was conducted overnight," WestJet said Friday.

The airline said the plane will go through additional maintenance inspections before being returned to service.

It said 132 passengers were on the plane and all travellers were to be rebooked on other flights.

Jon Lee with the Transportation Safety Board said a maintenance report for Thursday's landing shows there was no fire and staff thought they had fixed the problem. It's a common issue with pressurization systems, he said.

People don't need to be concerned, he added.

"It's interesting that we've had two in a row, but it's not causing us at the safety board to do anything extra."