Probe examines landing zone in Toronto jet crash

By Rachelle Younglai

TORONTO (Reuters) – The Air France plane that crashed in
Toronto this week landed further down the runway than is normal
for a jet of its size, and that’s one of many factors still
being probed, investigators said on Friday.

But the lead investigator said lightning did not appear to
be a factor behind the fiery, but nonfatal, crash of the Airbus
A340 .

All 309 people aboard survived after the plane tore off the
end of the runway at almost 100 mph (160 km/h) during a severe
thunderstorm, plunged into a ravine and burned to a charred and
twisted hulk.

“The information that I have is that the aircraft landed
longer than normal or longer than usual for this type of
aircraft,” Real Levasseur of Canada’s Transportation Safety
Board told reporters.

“How long exactly, or how far more than usual is what we
are trying to determine right now. If it turns out that it is
significant enough, then we will certainly look at all the
factors that follow.”

Witnesses to Tuesday’s crash said the plane landed halfway
down the runway at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, and
many speculated that it had been hit by lighting as it neared
the ground. But Levasseur said that was not likely.

“There was no evidence of a lightening strike on any part
of the aircraft that does not have fire damage,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lightening strike but we
do not have any evidence of that at this time.”

Levasseur said all thrust reversers, used to brake a plane
on landing, were working as the plane touched down and the
cockpit area was not as badly damaged as previously thought.

Equipment retrieved from the cockpit will contain data that
should help shed light on what the plane was doing at the time
of landing, he added.

“We will be putting all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle
together to determine exactly what happened,” said Levasseur,
who is leading a team of 35 from Canada and 17 from elsewhere,
including the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

Levasseur said there was no indication that the plane tried
to take off again after coming in to land, noting that there
are tire marks for at least the last 1,600 feet of the strip.

The A340-300 is one of the biggest commercial jets in
service. It is 208 feet long, seats nearly 300, has four
engines and weighs a maximum of 200 tons while landing.

The crash has also focused attention on the Toronto
airport, which is the biggest and busiest in Canada.

The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents 64,000
airline pilots at 41 airlines in Canada and the United States,
complained about the ravine at Pearson and said obstacle-free
“safety areas” were needed beyond the end of runways to give
planes a chance to slow down.

“It is the latest in a series of airline accidents that
highlight the dangers of inadequate runway safety areas,” the
association said in a statement released late on Thursday.

“The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
recommends that runways should have a defined ‘runway safety
area’ free of obstacles and extending well past the end of the
actual runway,” the statement said.

Two people died in 1978 when an Air Canada plane ended up
in the same ravine, which is some 50 feet deep and separates
the airport from an adjoining highway.