The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a preliminary report on an Aug. 14 incident involving an Air Canada Rouge Airbus A319 that touched down short of runway 20L in Nashville, Tennessee.
According to the report, Air Canada Rouge flight ROU1717 was arriving from Toronto Pearson International Airport when the aircraft landed on the paved blast pad preceding the runway threshold. The left main landing gear contacted an airport service road approximately 420 feet short of the runway, while the right main gear touched down about 52 feet short of the paved surface. The airplane subsequently rolled onto the runway, striking a threshold light before completing an otherwise uneventful landing rollout and taxi.
None of the 93 people onboard — two crew members and 91 passengers — were injured. A post-flight inspection revealed mud on the empennage and minor tire damage.
The flight crew consisted of a line indoctrination training captain serving as pilot monitoring and a captain candidate acting as pilot flying. The aircraft was initially cleared for a visual approach but was later vectored for the RNAV (GPS) Y 20L approach due to rain over the airport.
At 200 feet above ground level, the crew encountered heavy rain, and the pilot flying stated he had “lost the runway” but still believed the runway environment was visible. He asked whether a go-around should be initiated, but the pilot monitoring — who reported still seeing the runway through the rain — responded that they were “good to continue.”
Airport surveillance footage confirmed the aircraft’s touchdown short of the runway. Weather observations from Nashville at the time indicated visual meteorological conditions with scattered clouds at 5,000 feet and 10 miles of visibility, though heavy rain was reported during final approach.
The investigation is ongoing, and the NTSB emphasized that the information remains preliminary.
