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Probe examines landing zone in Toronto jet crash

Posted on: Friday, 5 August 2005, 11:45 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

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