Thank goodness...
No fatalities in Toronto airplane fire
Last Updated Tue, 02 Aug 2005 18:01:48 EDT
CBC News
All the passengers aboard a jet that skidded off a runway and burst into flames at Pearson International Airport Tuesday survived the ordeal, according to fire officials on the scene.
One passenger aboard the Air France Airbus A340, Roel Bramar, told CBC News that he saw lightning just as the plane landed in a torrential downpour at about 3:50 p.m.
"I'm sure that the bad weather was responsible," said Bramar, who was not injured and managed to scramble off the plane by means of an emergency chute. He was the second person off the plane, he said.
Flight 358 from Paris had been scheduled to arrive at Toronto at 3:35 p.m. EDT. Some reports said it landed safely, but then something went badly wrong.
The plane skidded off Runway 24 Left, an east-west runway laid out parallel to one of Toronto's busiest roads, Highway 401. It ended up in the Etobicoke Creek ravine, a small valley at the far west end of the airport, the aircraft's fuselage tipped down and its tail in the air.
"We had a hell of a roller-coaster going down the ravine," Bramar said. "All I could think of was 'Get off!'"
Rescue crews are still on the scene.
The incident happened as most operations at the airport were grounded because of severe thunderstorms in the area.
At mid-afternoon Tuesday, a spokesperson with the Greater Toronto Airports Authority said lightning was causing technical problems with the airport's lightning-detection system. All aircraft were grounded for safety reasons as a result, largely to protect crews working on the ground.
The Greater Toronto Airports Authority has scheduled a news conference for 6 p.m. to give details about the crash.
In the meantime, all incoming flights were being rerouted to Ottawa's airport.
Sucks to be anyone rerouted to Ottawa, that's about a 5hr drive from Toronto.
It
has been really stormy here all day, our power's just gone out at work (came right back up though).
Jetliner on fire at Pearson
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
An Air France passenger jet skidded off the runway and burst into flames this afternoon while trying to land in stormy weather at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
Officials would not say how many passengers were on board the Airbus A340 jet when it crashed in a wooded area in view of Highway 401, or how many were inured.
"It looks like most of the people got off the plane, which is obviously good news," Toronto ambulance spokesperson Larry Roberts, told the Star's Karen Palmer.
"It looks like the passengers got off the plane before it got fully engulfed in flames."
There were three busloads of ambulatory patients with minor injuries who were able to walk on to Mississauga Transit buses, said Roberts. He was not sure where they were taken.
At 5 p.m., there were still half a dozen people on scene waiting for ambulances. EMS and support vehicles were on scene and there were ambulances waiting around the perimeter of the airport on an as-needed basis.
Roberts said their injuries could range from burns to broken bones to bruises from a shaky landing or ankles hurt sliding down the emergency chutes.
One report said 200 people had been on the plane. According to the Airbus website typical passenger seating for the A340 is 239, and a pilot familiar with the plane told the Star the planes carry up to 15 crew.
Black smoke billowed from the aircraft, which one witness said had split in two.
"I would say the thing is broken in half from the wing part, we're obviously going to have casualties," witness Eddy Mets, who is also an aviation expert, told Toronto television station CP24.
CP24 also reported that it was Air France flight 358 travelling from Paris to Toronto that went down.
According to Lee Romanov, who was interviewed on CP24 after receiving a phone call from a friend who was on the plane, the jet made a big drop in altitude before coming in for a very rough landing.
Romanow said passengers exited the plane on emergency chutes.
With little information available on injuries, dramatic scenes of the crash site were broadcast live on Canadian and American news channels.
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.
A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreck, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water and foam.
Police said the jet that was attempting to land when it ran into trouble in driving rain. Lightning strikes were also spotted in the area.
"An Air France plane landing on runway 2-4 went off the end of the runway (in) the area of Convert Drive and the 401 area in Mississauga," said Griffiths, of Peel Regional police.
The airport had been operating under vigilant security measures in the wake of deadly bombings in London.
For more information on this story as it becomes available, return to thestar.com.
