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OTTAWA — Early Monday evening, a special container, about five to six square feet, was unloaded from an airplane at Toronto’s international airport. Inside it was more than 20 million Canadian dollars, about $14.8 million, in gold and other valuables. It was swiftly moved into a secure cargo holding facility. Then, like many a suitcase, it vanished. Announcing the theft on Thursday, Inspector Stephen Duivesteyn of the Peel Regional Police, the force that patrols Toronto Pearson Airport, offered few details about how the high-value container had disappeared beyond perhaps the obvious: by “illegal means.” The investigators gave so little information...

A U.S.-based traveller is facing a mischief charge after trying to board a flight with a "mock improvised explosive device" at Toronto's Pearson airport this morning, in an incident that caused an hours-long delay for passengers. United Airlines Flight 547 was set to depart at 7 a.m. ET for O'Hare International Airport, but during security clearance, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found a device in a passenger's suitcase that caused them concern. According to a statement, CBP notified Canadian Air Transport Security Authority officials who "swabbed the mock IED for explosives with a negative result."

off you go

ONE survivor of the Air France crash in Toronto on Tuesday described the "panic" of his fellow passengers. Yet these people had just evacuated a burning plane in about two minutes. While they had had critical help from the plane's crew members, those trained professionals were busy assisting people with limited mobility, not providing psychotherapy. Thus what the passenger observed was clearly not "panic" in the sense of an unthinking crowd acting irrationally and abandoning the norms of civilized behavior. Indeed, it was the exact opposite. The Air France evacuation required an extraordinary degree of social coordination - which emerged...

TORONTO - Investigators trying to determine why an Air France jet skidded off a runway into a ravine said Saturday that only four of the aircraft's eight doors and emergency exits were used to escape the burning jetliner. Real Levasseur of Canada's Transportation Safety Board said two of the slides used by the 309 passengers and crew in their rush to disembark after the crash last Tuesday also failed to work, even though they are supposed to automatically unfold when the emergency doors are opened. The discovery confirms comments by many passengers and witnesses who said some of the slides...

TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Investigators trying to determine why an Air France jet skidded off a runway said Saturday that only four of the aircraft's eight doors and emergency exits were used to escape the burning jetliner, and that two emergency slides malfunctioned. Real Levasseur of Canada's Transportation Safety Board said one of the four exit doors used by the 309 passengers and crew in their rush to disembark was difficult to open, and that the fire after the crash last Tuesday may have prevented access to the other doors. Levasseur also said two of the slides used failed to...

TORONTO (CNS) -- A Tanzanian priest aboard an Air France jet that crashed in Toronto and burst into flames said he was "prepared for death." "I was actually prepared for death. I said, 'God, we are dying. Save us God.' That was my last prayer," Father Ayub Mwampela told The Catholic Register of Toronto a day after the Aug. 2 crash. As Father Mwampela was praying, passengers around him began to shout. Panic mushroomed inside the plane as people realized something was very wrong. Passengers had gone from applauding the crew for a difficult landing to the grip of fear....

ORONTO, Canada -- 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. 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...

TORONTO (AP) - The flight from Paris had been a breeze for the students, businessmen and vacationers, until Air France Flight 358 started its final descent - and it suddenly became clear a furious thunderstorm was enveloping the packed Airbus A340. As crewmembers made landing announcements, passengers like Caroline Diezyn, Olivier Dubois and Ahmed Alawata made sure their seat belts were tight against the turbulence. They stared out the windows but saw only blackness in the afternoon sky. For the 297 passengers and 12 crew, a harrowing landing in Toronto on Tuesday would end in a textbook evacuation. Most were...

TORONTO -- Just as Air France Flight 358 from Paris was about to touch down, the lights went off in the passenger cabin. Thunder roared and lightning cracked. Then, without warning, the jetliner skidded off the rain-slicked runway, slid into a ravine and broke into pieces. The 309 people on board had only moments to escape before the aircraft burst into flames. Passengers screamed and panicked. But remarkably, everyone jumped to safety. As many as 43 people suffered minor injuries in the crash, which happened at 4:03 p.m. Tuesday. It was the first crash of an Airbus A340 in its...

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...

Air France says there are no fatalities in the plane crash in Toronto, which happened while flight 358 was attempting to land in a thunderstorm. The jet burst into flames after skidding off the runway at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. According to Air France, 297 passengers and 12 crew were aboard the plane. Steve Shaw, Vice-President of Corporate Affairs for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, said there are no known fatalities. "Minor injuries are unconfirmed, but it's something around 14," Shaw told a 6 p.m. ET news conference. Peel Regional Police say a pilot and a number of passengers were...

Breaking News from CFRB 1010AM News Radio - Toronto Airliner on fire on the ground at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ). Unclear as to cause. Announcers asking for updates from motorists in the region on HWY 401. Report says great deal of smoke. I have to go into a meeting shortly but I'll listen for updates as long as I can.

WASHINGTON -- The Internet's primary oversight body approved a plan Wednesday to create a virtual red-light district, setting the stage for pornographic Web sites to use new addresses ending in "xxx." The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said it would begin negotiations with ICM Registry Inc., run by British businessman Stuart Lawley, to iron out technical issues and prices for the new Web addresses. Adult-oriented sites, a $12 billion industry, probably could begin buying "xxx" addresses as early as fall or winter depending on ICM's plans,