DALLAS — An Air Canada cargo flight bound for Montréal was forced to make an emergency landing at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) early Thursday morning after encountering an issue shortly after takeoff.
Air Canada Flight AC7249, operated by a Boeing 767-300ER freighter (registration C-FPCA), departed DFW’s Runway 36L at 3:25 a.m. CDT on Thursday, August 27, 2026. The flight was scheduled for a three-hour run north to Montréal–Trudeau International Airport (YUL).
Flight tracking data indicates that following departure, the freighter climbed to an unusually high cruising altitude of 41,000 feet—reaching the maximum service ceiling for the Boeing 767 model.
Shortly after reaching this altitude, the crew transmitted a squawk code 7700, the international signal for an in-flight emergency. Air traffic controllers immediately vectored the aircraft into a U-turn back toward Texas while the flight crew initiated a rapid descent down to 10,000 feet, a standard maneuver often used in response to cabin pressurization issues or air system anomalies.
The 37-year-old aircraft returned to DFW slightly more than an hour after its initial departure. The freighter landed safely back on Runway 36L without further incident and taxied directly to the same cargo stand it had vacated earlier that morning.
Air Canada has not yet released an official statement regarding the specific technical failure that prompted the emergency declaration.
