Toronto Canada +Plane Crash+
TORONTO: A passenger jet Air France A340 from Paris with over 200 people on board has caught fire and is fully involved after skidding off a runway at Toronto's Pearson airport.
U/D:
Black smoke billowing from the wreckage as the aircraft burns.
Unknown if there are any injuries or fatalities at this time.
U/D: 18:13
Canadian official say there are no known fatalities in plane crash in Toronto.
U/D: 18:27
Canadian airport authority says 14 people suffered minor injuries in plane crash, all 309 survive.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 8/02/2005 04:42:00 PM
8 Comments:
At 4:52 PM,
Anonymous said…
are they still on board?status of fire?
At 5:04 PM,
Anonymous said…
there was thonder & ligthing at the airport when this air frence plane was ready to lend
At 5:20 PM,
Anonymous said…
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
At 5:26 PM,
Anonymous said…
Plane in flames after skidding off runway
Canadian reports: Jet was carrying about 200 passengers
Tuesday, August 2, 2005; Posted: 5:06 p.m. EDT (21:06 GMT)
TORONTO, Canada (AP) -- A passenger jetliner caught fire Tuesday after skidding off a runway in the rain at Pearson airport in Toronto.
There was no word on casualties. Canadian television reported that the plane was carrying about 200 passengers.
Police told news agencies the Air France passenger jet was trying to land. There were thunderstorms reported in the area at the time.
Police Sgt. Glyn Griffiths said it was not known if any passengers had been taken from the plane.
Black smoke billowed from the wreckage as the aircraft burned.
A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreckage, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water.
The flaming wreckage was next to the four-lane Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, and some cars and trucks stopped on the roadway after the crash.
At 5:36 PM,
Anonymous said…
no fatalties
At 5:59 PM,
Anonymous said…
Passenger Jet Skids Off Toronto Runway
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 2, 2005; 5:36 PM
TORONTO -- A passenger jetliner carrying more than 200 people erupted in flames Tuesday after skidding off a runway while landing in a fierce thunderstorm at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Black smoke billowed into the air as the wreck burned.
A Toronto radio station said some passengers were seen climbing from the plane, and that most of the others had been safely evacuated.
Smoke is visible from the scene of an Air France A340 passenger jet that skidded off the runway of Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada. (APTV)
Police said the plane was an Air France A340 from Paris that was trying to land when it ran into trouble. There was a storm -- with lightning and strong wind gusts -- in the area at the time.
Toronto Fire Services Capt. David Sheen told CNN that he understood some casualties had been taken to hospitals but had no information or their condition.
AM 680, an all-news station, reported live from the scene that there were two explosions on the plane. The station quoted a police official on the nearby freeway as saying two groups of passengers had been evacuated from the jet.
AM 680 also said some passengers could be seen climbing from the plane and that emergency workers said most of the people on board were safe.
The report could not immediately be confirmed.
A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreck, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water. A government transportation highway camera recorded the burning plane, and the footage was broadcast live on television in Canada and the United States.
A portion of the plane's wing could be seen jutting from the trees as smoke and flames poured from the middle of its broken fuselage. At one point, another huge plume of smoke emerged from the wreckage, but it wasn't clear whether it was from an explosion.
The flaming ruin was next to the four-lane Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, and some cars and trucks stopped on the roadway after the crash.
Corey Marks told CNN he was at the side of the highway when he watched the Air France plane touch down and crash.
"It was around 4 o'clock, it was getting really dark, and all of a sudden lightning was happening, a lot of rain was coming down," Marks said. "This plane ... came in on the runway, hits the runway nice. Everything looked good, sounds good and all of a sudden we heard the engines backing up. ... He went straight into the valley and cracked in half."
CNN reported the flight was Air France Flight 358, which was scheduled to arrive in Toronto at about 4 p.m. from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris.
"They made an approach in weather that was worse than what they anticipated," John Wiley, a retired Airbus pilot in Toronto, told CNN.
Thunderstorms create the possibility of wind shear, the sudden, dangerous air currents that can dash an airplane to the ground as it takes off or lands.
The last major jumbo jet crash in North America was on Nov. 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 lost part of its tail and plummeted into a New York City neighborhood, killing 265 people. Safety investigators concluded that the crash was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively.
Paris-based Air France-KLM Group is the world's largest airline in terms of revenue. It is the product of the French flagship airline's acquisition last year of Dutch carrier KLM. For the year ended in March, the company earned $443 million on revenues of $24.1 billion.
Air France-KLM operates a fleet of 375 planes and flies 1,800 daily flights, according to the company's Web site. In the last fiscal year, it carried 43.7 million passengers to 84 countries around the globe.
At 6:01 PM,
Anonymous said…
Passenger jet on fire at Toronto airport
CTV.ca News Staff
An Air France jet burst into flames after skidding off the runway while attempting to land at Toronto's Pearson International Airport in a thunderstorm.
There is no word on any casualties and the number of passengers on board was not immediately available. But police have confirmed that a pilot and a number of passengers were taken to hospital.
Sgt. Glyn Griffiths told the Globe and Mail that some injured passengers were seen walking around the crash site.
"A pilot has gone to hospital and they were picked up on the 401 [highway] and a number of other passengers were wandering around the area so we're trying to head them off,'' said Griffiths.
Passenger Oliver Dubos, speaking to CTV's Tom Clark by phone from a nearby emergency room, said that just before the plane was about to land, the lights in the cabin went "all black -- no more lights."
The plane then went off the runway, and the plane was suddenly in the ravine. "We opened the emergency doors, there were lots of flames, and we just tried to escape," Dubos said. "There was a lot of gas and smoke."
Sgt. Griffiths indicated the aircraft was an Air France jet that was trying to land when it ran into trouble.
"An Air France plane landing on runway 2-4 left went off the end of the runway the area of Convert Drive and the 401 area in Mississauga," said Griffiths.
"I haven't got any information on casualties at all."
Air France has not released a statement, but a Montreal ticket agent with the airline told Reuters that the burning plane is an Airbus A340 -- flight AF358 travelling from Paris to Toronto.
Live television pictures showed smoke billowing from the aircraft in a wooded area just metres from Highway 401 -- Canada's busiest highway -- near the airport. A section of the plane's wing could be seen jutting from the trees.
Severe storms were hitting the area at the time of the accident, grounding most operations at the airport.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing lightning hit the plane before it burst into flames.
Air France's website shows that flight 358 left Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport and was due to arrive in Toronto on Tuesday afternoon. The airline's A340 planes are generally configured for 252 passenger seats.
Toronto airport has been closed to other traffic, with planes diverted to Ottawa and other nearby airports.
The Greater Toronto Airport Authority is expected to hold a press conference tonight at 6 p.m. ET.
At 9:11 PM,
torontopearl said…
I live in Toronto, and yes, we had a major thunder and lightning rainstorm around 4:00 today; that's when the accident happened.
Thank G-d there have been no reports of fatalities only casualties. I listened to first-person interviews while driving home at 5:30.
Traffic in all directions, both on the nearby highway to the airport, and elsewhere in the city, was snarled as a result of this accident.
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