Passenger Jet Skids Off Toronto Runway 2 minutes ago



TORONTO - A passenger jetliner caught fire Tuesday after skidding off a runway at Pearson airport in Toronto. Black smoke billowed from the wreckage as the aircraft burned.

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Rescue vehicles rushed to the scene, which was in a wooded area near Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

Police said the plane was an Air France passenger jet that was trying to land when it ran into trouble.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050802/ap_on_re_ca/canada_...Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Possibly Airbus 340.

Plane on fire at Pearson airport
Last updated Aug 2 2005 05:17 PM EDT
CBC News


An Air France jet with as many as 252 people aboard has skidded off a runway while landing at Toronto's Pearson International Airport, bursting into flames and sending thick black smoke pouring into the air.


There is no word on the condition of the passengers and crew members on board the A340, with the plane still burning more than an hour after the 3:50 p.m. crash.

The airplane was trying to land in bad weather when it skidded off the runway just metres from one of Toronto's busiest roads, Highway 401.

The plane is capable of transporting up to 300 passengers and crew, although one news service reported that the Paris-Toronto direct flight number 358 was carrying about 230 people.

"There was quite a downpour. The visibility was really bad, with lots of lightning," said John Findlay, a CBC News journalist who was at the airport at the time of the accident.


The jet crashed through barriers and ended up in a small ravine at the far west end of the airport, the fuselage tipped down and the aircraft's tail in the air.

"An Air France plane landing on runway 24 went off the end of the runway in the area of Convair Drive and the 401 area in Mississauga," Peel police Sgt. Glyn Griffiths said at about 4:30 p.m.

The incident happened as most operations at the airport were halted because of severe thunderstorms in the area.

http://www.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/pearson-fire08020...e=pearson-fire080205

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No fatalities have been reported thus far, thankfully, and the latest report says that busloads of people left the plane.

Apparently a few suffered minor injuries but nothing serious reported.

Black Boxes Retrieved From Air France Site By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 37 minutes ago



TORONTO - Toronto's airport was under "red alert" because of the threat of lightning when an Air France jetliner landed in a fierce rainstorm despite having enough fuel to reach another airport "” a decision that was made by the pilot, airport authorities said Wednesday.

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Investigators searching the wreckage of the Airbus A340 found the flight data and voice recorders "” the so-called "black boxes," said Steve Shaw, spokesman for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority. Officials hope the recorders will provide clues to what caused the aircraft to skid off a runway Tuesday at Lester B. Pearson International Airport and burst into flames.

All 309 passengers and crew escaped alive in an evacuation that took less than two minutes. Air France said 22 people were injured, while airport officials said 43 were hurt. The wreckage of the jetliner "” torn into three pieces "” still smoldered Wednesday.

Brian Lackey, vice president of operations for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, said Wednesday the jetliner had enough fuel to divert to Montreal or another airport where the weather was better, but "that's the pilot's decision."

The airport was under a "red alert," which indicates potential for lightning but does not prevent planes from landing or taking off, officials said.

Real Levasseur, lead investigator for Canada's Transportation Safety Board, said the decision to land during a "red alert" would be investigated.

He emphasized that wind shear likely wasn't a factor in the crash "” as has been speculated "” because that usually would only affect aircraft in flight. He also doubted lightning played a role.

Levasseur said the black boxes were in relatively good condition. "There is some fire damage to them, but we should be able to recover the information."

Lackey said airport workers were struck by the severity of the storm. "As we were looking out the window we were commenting that storm was extremely severe," he said. "Normally if there are thunderstorms in the area, a pilot may decide to circle until it's safe to land."

Airport Fire Chief Mike Figliola said three-quarters of the passengers and crew managed to escape in the 52 seconds it took for emergency crews to arrive. "The crew did a great job, they're trained to get the people off," Figliola said.

At Air France headquarters in Roissy, France, airline chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta also praised the flight crew. "I don't know if we should speak of a miracle ... but above all the professionalism of the crew," Spinetta said.

He said the co-pilot, who was in charge of the landing, had 10,700 hours of flying time, and the 57-year-old pilot had 15,000 hours.

Spinetta said Air France bought the aircraft new on Sept. 7, 1999. It was last serviced July 15 and had logged 28,418 flight-hours and 3,711 takeoffs and landings.

He said it was too early to determine the cause of the crash, the first of an Airbus A340 in its 13 years of commercial service.

Two dozen Air France officials, including a medical team and a psychologist, flew to Toronto. A separate team of experts "” including six from Airbus, three from the French accident investigation bureau and three from Air France "” headed to Toronto earlier, Spinetta said.

The first sign of trouble came minutes before landing when the pilot aborted an initial attempt because of the storm and powerful winds. About a minute before the jetliner touched down, the lights in the cabin went out, passenger Olivier Dubois said.

Gwen Dunlop, who was returning from a vacation in France, said some passengers went down emergency chutes, while others jumped from the plane on their own. "We were all trying to go up a hill; it was all mud and we lost our shoes," she said.

Some of the 297 passengers and 12 crew members reached the nearby highway.

"It was chaotic," police Sgt. Craig Platt said. "Thankfully, the drivers on highway 401 stopped and offered their assistance."

Many people lost parts of their clothing when they jumped from the plane; others later took off wet clothes and exchanged them for warm blankets.

Dominique Pajot, 54, a Paris businessman who had been sitting in first class, said his clothes were soaked in the rainstorm so he carried them in a plastic bag, and was wearing a hospital gown and hospital-issued pajama pants. His brown leather loafers were caked with mud.

"I am happy," Pajot said. "I don't know whether it's a lucky day or an unlucky one."

David Learmount, an aviation safety expert with British-based Flight International magazine, said the crash appears similar to others in which planes have overshot runways before hitting obstacles or uneven ground "” in this case a gully about 300 feet beyond the tarmac.

So-called overruns are "not all that rare," especially during heavy rainstorms when a plane's wheels can fail to grip the tarmac, Learmount said.

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November 16, 2005
The crash of an Air France jet in Toronto on August 2 does not appear to have been caused by problems with the Airbus A340 itself, Canada's Transport Safety Board said on Wednesday.

All 309 people on board survived the crash in which the plane ran off the end of the runway as it landed during a severe thunderstorm.

"To date, investigators have not found significant anomalies of the aircraft systems," the agency said in a preliminary report. "Review of digital flight data recorder data has not revealed any system troubles or malfunctions."

"No problems were detected with the flight controls, spoilers, tires and brakes, or thrust reversers," the report said.

It described the events as follows: "After landing long, the aircraft overran the end of the runway and came to rest in a ravine just outside the airport perimeter."

Some aviation analysts have said the ravine, about 200 metres (650 feet) beyond the end of the tarmac, should be filled in or covered to extend the runway's safety zone. The ravine was the site of an Air Canada crash in 1978 that killed two people.

The Air Line Pilots Association has complained about the ravine, saying obstacle-free safety areas are needed beyond the runway.

Passengers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Air France, the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and air-traffic control agency Nav Canada, alleging negligence.

The suit, filed in Ontario Superior Court on behalf of the 297 passengers, is seeking CAD$325 million (USD$273 million) in general and special damages.

(Reuters)

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