Posted on 08/03/2005 7:05:39 AM PDT by traumer
Canada's transport minister has called it a "miracle" that over 300 passengers and crew escaped from an Air France jet that skidded off a Toronto runway.
The Airbus A340 crashed in bad weather on Tuesday, slithering into a ditch before bursting into flames. Passengers described chaotic scenes as they tried to escape Flight 358 in darkness while a thunderstorm raged.
Moments after the last survivor clambered away, the fuselage was engulfed in smoke and flames. A total of 297 passengers and 12 crew fled the wreckage of the plane, which had tried to land in bad weather at Toronto's Pearson airport.
Airport officials said some 43 people were injured in the accident. It was the first major crash of an Airbus A340-300 since the model's debut flight in October 1991.
Transport minister Jean Lapierre made it clear how close those on board came to death.
"I would say this is a miracle," he said. "It's nothing short of a miracle." The Airbus crash-landed amid thunder and lightning at 1603 local time (2003 GMT).
Several passengers suggested that the aircraft might have been hit by lightning either just before or just after landing.
"It was raining hard," said Gilles Medioni, a passenger seated in the centre of the plane. "When we touched down a lot of people clapped their hands, but it was a little premature."
After touching down on the runway the plane lurched across the wet tarmac, before skidding towards the airport perimeter.
It overshot the runway by about 200m (660ft) into a wooded ditch next to Canada's busiest motorway, Highway 401, ending with its tail pointing in the air.
Explosion fear
Passengers spoke of smoke and kerosene fumes filling the cabin as they scrambled to escape, fearful of a massive explosion.
"Everybody was jumping as fast as possible and running everywhere, because the fear was that the plane would blow," passenger Olivier Dubois told the AFP news agency.
About 3.30pm the day turned to night as the fiercest storm we have had for a long time got into full swing. Andy Horton Mississauga, Ontario
Steve Shaw of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority said emergency services had been on standby at Pearson airport because of the developing thunderstorm throughout the day.
The airport had been under a "red alert" since midday on Tuesday because of the danger of lightning.
One witness said rescue workers reached the airliner within 50 seconds.
The Air France plane that crashed on Tuesday entered service in 1999 and was last inspected on 5 July.
It had flown up 28,418 flight hours across a total of 3,711 flights.
A340 What a great design.
Wonder how the evacuation tests are going for the new Airbus Jumbo-double-decker-behemoth-BAP.
Anybody know how many evacuation slides they got deployed?
Have they interviewed the Captain to see what the actual cause was?
Was the plane hit by lightning and if so, what would that do?
Aren't Airbus's strictly fly by wire (and computer?)?
Yesterday's early stories all said it was a Boeing 737. I thought an Air France Boeing 737 sounded like a strange combination.
Was the A340 the model that crashed into the trees during flight testing as the computer over-ruled the pilot who was asking for full power during an emergency?
According to the latest reports this morning, they were trying to land in "one heck of a thunderstorm". The reporter compared it to a Delta flight coming in to DFW almost 20 years ago to the day that crashed as a result of a microburst, and basically said that the conditions were almost identical. I don't think this was a problem with the plane itself, but a combination of weather and whoever decided to try to land that plane in the first place. I personally would credit Airbus with building a plane that can take that kind of beating and still allow all passengers to walk away.
When I got home yesterday early evening in mid-town Toronto you could smell the aftermath, and that was about 15 miles away. An oily, acrid smell that reminded you of burning nylon.
The passengers were remarkably lucky.
I have to agree. The fact that all of the passengers survived is a miracle.
I heard one slide did not deploy. Some passengers jumped out through the openings in the broken fuselage.
The Captain gets a lot of credit for checking the plane and being the last one off.
There were reports of the lights going out in the plane before touchdown which gives rise to speculation of a lightning strike perhaps affecting the computers.
I wonder whether, as with a lot of US carriers and especially on the longer and more "prestigious" overseas segments, most of the flight attendants were eligible for the French equivalent of old age benefits. Some of the attendants you meet on long haul flights look like they could use walkers.
Praise God! What are the odds of an incident like that not reulting in fatalities?
Do you know if he was French... I'm writing a book on French anomalies.
The aircraft had been circling, waiting for a break in the weather for 20 minutes already when the "land" decision was made.
Evidently, the break in the weather didn't last long enough to prevent this accident.
Thanks. I didn't catch that part of the story. I was living in Irving, Texas when the Delta flight went down and remember the storm that caused it. Clear skies where I was and black clouds with frequent lightning just a couple miles away (right over DFW). Very scary.
If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail not by posting to this thread.
Can't find any names. I would guess he is French and would belong in such a book if one were written. :)
I found only this info and have since lost the link to the article...
The 12-person crew was "very experienced," Spinetta said, noting that plane's co-pilot, who was in charge of landing, had 10,700 hours of flying time. The 57-year-old pilot had flown 15,000 hours prior to the flight, he said.
Also, just read that it was the co-pilot who was last off, I'm sure more information will surface later today.
I think he's stretching the definition a bit.
Amen, and thank you, God.
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