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None Dead Aboard Flight 358 After Fiery Crash at Toronto's Pearson Airport

Posted on: Tuesday, 2 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

TORONTO (CP) - Air France said none of the 309 people aboard an Air France passenger jet perished Tuesday when it skidded off the runway, slammed into a stand of trees and burst into flames during a fierce thunderstorm at Pearson International Airport.

Injured passengers and crew members aboard Air France Flight 358 from Paris, including one of the co-pilots, staggered a short distance from the wreckage to flag down commuters along Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, in the moments after the crash, said Peel police Sgt. Glyn Griffiths.

"We located the co-pilot on Highway 401," Griffiths said.

Steve Shaw, vice-president of corporate affairs with the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, said everyone on board was able to get off the plane before it caught fire.

"The passengers were able to clear the aircraft before the fire broke out, but that's an unconfirmed report," Shaw said.

Several area hospitals were on high alert as they prepared for an onslaught of injuries. One nine-month-old baby was taken to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, but there was no word on the state of the baby's injuries.

Flames and black smoke could be seen shooting from the downed plane's broken fuselage, a wingtip jutting above the trees, moments after it crashed at the end of the runway amid lightning strikes and driving rain.

There were 297 passengers and 12 crew members aboard the flight, which was scheduled to arrive in Toronto at 4 p.m. Tuesday from Charles de Gaulle International Airport outside Paris.

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Toronto at 4 p.m. from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris.

The plane was an A340, capable of transporting as many as 350 people, and the only craft that Air France flies into Toronto.

Glenn Schiller, a passenger in a plane that had already landed on the tarmac, watched the scene unfold.

"Looking out the window to the back my aircraft, a thick, black billow of smoke began," Schiller said. "Emergency vehicles are flying around a couple thousand metres away across on the runway."

Schiller said the pilot of his aircraft told passengers there was "a landing incident."

"At the time the rain was coming down sideways," he said. "It was a vicious, vicious thunderstorm."

Thunderstorms create the possibility of wind shear - the sudden, dangerous air currents that can push an aircraft into the ground during takeoff and landing.

Smoke billowed from a wooded area near Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, as emergency crews sped to the scene and commuters on their way home from work became snared in a massive traffic jam.

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.

Although details on the injuries, the number of passengers and circumstances of the crash were unavailable, the operation was broadcast live on television in Canada and the United States.

Police said the plane was attempting to land when it ran into trouble in a 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 Convair Drive and the 401 area in Mississauga," Griffiths said.

"Unknown at the time of any injuries. Flame was seen from the plane. And full response by all emergency vehicles."

He couldn't say whether any passengers had been removed from the plane.

The airport had been operating under vigilant security measures in the wake of deadly bombings in London.

Fire crews were blasting the craft with water, sending plumes of white smoke into the sky.

"I'm actually very surprised they've been able to contain it as well as they have," said Mets.

Nine flights scheduled to land at Pearson had been diverted to Ottawa, officials said.

The most serious plane crash at Pearson, Canada's busiest airport, was more than 30 years ago. In 1970 an Air Canada DC-8 jet, en route from Montreal to Los Angeles, went down north of the airport, killing all 109 people aboard.

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 neighbourhood, killing 265 people. Safety investigators concluded the crash was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively.

The federal Transportation Safety Board was preparing to send a team of investigators to Pearson.

"We won't be the lead agency until the fire is under control and any rescue operations are complete," said spokesman Conrad Bellehumeur.

"At that point we would then be taking over control of the site to determine what happened, why it happened."

Source: Canadian Press

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