Cargo jet that overshot Halifax airport runway dismantled

A Boeing 747 cargo jet that overshot the runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport close to two weeks ago has been dismantled.

"Once all of the debris has been removed, the contaminated soil will be removed and disposed of off-site," said Theresa Rath Spicer, a spokesperson for the airport.

Flight KKE 4854 arrived in Halifax from Chicago on Nov. 7 to pick up lobster destined for China. But it overshot the runway, damaging both the plane and equipment on the runway.

Rath Spicer said the runway where the incident took place is likely to reopen, at least partially, on Wednesday.

While there was no damage to the runway surface, Nav Canada said there was "significant damage" to the instrument landing system localizer, which provides vertical or horizontal guidance.

"So that has to be repaired, and once it is repaired, we do what's called the flight inspection check," said Ron Singer, a spokesperson for Nav Canada. "We have a plane that will fly in to test the signals from the ground to make sure all is operational and accurate."

Singer said he's hoping the repair can be completed by the middle of next week.

Efforts to get the runway back up and running have been a challenge, Rath Spicer said.

"We had to ensure that safety and the environment were our top priorities, so we did come up against some challenges where it just wasn't safe for them to remove the aircraft, so as an example, the high winds we had last week," she said.

Rath Spicer said the incident has resulted in three fewer cargo flights from Halifax to Asia each week, down from five flights flights to two.

She said the area with the contaminated soil is contained to where the aircraft came to rest.