Per CNN witnesses no one seen leaving aircraft, but other report have casualties taken to local hospitals.
Plane on fire at Pearson airport Last updated
Aug 2 2005 05:23 PM EDTCBC 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. One news service reported the flight to be Air France flight number 358, a Paris-based flight which had earlier stopped in Montreal, and 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.
All incoming flights have been rerouted from Toronto to Ottawa.
If it started smoking/burning soon after landing, I'm fearful a lot of them didn't make it.