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Experts Say Wind Shear Possible Cause for Air France Crash in Toronto

Posted on: Wednesday, 3 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

TORONTO (CP) - Thunder and lightening were in the air Tuesday as an Air France passenger jet crashed in Toronto, leading experts to say the most likely culprit was bad weather.

Chris Yates, an aviation specialist with Jane's Transport magazine, says although it is too early to draw any conclusions, "we're probably talking about a weather-related issue here." The fact that the accident happened during a thunderstorm has raised speculation that it was caused by wind shear - a sudden change in wind speed or direction. The most dangerous kind, called a microburst, is caused by air descending from a thunderstorm.

Environment Canada had issued a severe weather alert Wednesday afternoon, saying its radar showed a rapidly developing thunderstorm with damaging winds up to 100 kilometres per hour. It also warned of large hail and torrential downpours.

Steve Shaw, vice president of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority which manages Toronto's Pearson International Airport, said the airport had been under a "red alert," which indicates the potential of lightening, when the plane went down at 4:03 p.m.

"Since 12:20 a.m. we'd been experiencing a series of thunder cells that came through with lightening," he told a news conference.

"We have a lightening detection system that's activated, and that stops all activity on the apron and that condition was carried through on and off through most of the afternoon."

Modern airliners are safer than ever, Yates said, but extreme conditions can still be dangerous, especially during takeoff and landing.

"You can never account for weather," Yates said. "A thunderstorm can happen anywhere - it comes down to the judgment of the air traffic controller and the skill of the pilot to determine whether it's appropriate to land or to divert elsewhere."

Tuesday's crash came exactly 20 years after an airline crash at Dallas-Forth Worth airport, which killed more than 137 people, pushed the United States to install systems to detect wind shear at almost all its major airports.

Wind shear was also blamed in 1975, when Eastern Airlines Flight 66 fell from the sky while trying to land in a thunderstorm at Kennedy International Airport.

The flight from New Orleans struck approach lights, skidded across a boulevard, flipped and exploded about a kilometre short of the runway, killing 113 people of 124 aboard.

The strongest microburst wind gust on record - 240 km/h-took place at Andrews Air Force Base on Aug. 1, 1983, only eight minutes after Air Force One had landed with then president Ronald Reagan aboard.

Source: Canadian Press

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