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Crew hailed for swift rescue

Investigators say rainstorm caused jet to skid off runway

TORONTO: Investigators said on Wednesday that a heavy rainstorm accompanied by lightning and strong winds was a factor that caused an Air France jet to skid off a Toronto runway and burst into flames, prompting 309 passengers and crew to slide down escape chutes.

Search for black boxes

The black boxes of Flight 358 from Paris will be retrieved on Wednesday, investigators said. The plane skidded off the runway at Lester B. Pearson International Airport after landing at about 4 p.m. [local time] on Tuesday in a pounding storm.

The airport was under a ``red alert,'' which indicates potential for lightning but does not prevent planes from landing or taking off, officials said.

Brian Lackey, vice-president of operations for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, said the Airbus A340 had enough fuel to divert to Montreal or another airport where the weather was better, but ``that's the pilot's decision.''

``It was definitely an extreme storm, something we haven't seen in a long time,'' Mr. Lackey said. ``We're very, very grateful that the situation turned out as well as it did.''

Air France said 22 persons were injured, while Toronto airport officials said 43 were hurt. The wreckage of the jetliner smouldered near a busy highway in what a Paris newspaper called ``The miracle of the Air France Airbus.'' The evacuation of more than 300 people took less than two minutes, with a co-pilot the last to leave the flaming wreckage, airport fire chief Mike Figliola said. Mr. Figliola said three-quarters of the passengers and crew aboard the plane left the wreckage in the 52 seconds it took for emergency crews to arrive. ``The crew did a great job, they're trained to get the people off,'' Mr. Figliola said.

Sign of trouble

The first sign of trouble came minutes before landing when the pilot aborted an initial attempt to land the plane because of the storm and powerful winds. About a minute before the plane landed, as it approached the airport for a second time, the lights in the cabin went out, a passenger said.

``Just before touching ground, it was all black in the plane, there was no more light, nothing,'' he said. As the wheels touched down, passengers — their nerves frayed by the darkness inside and outside the cabin and flashes of lightning — burst into applause. But then the jet thudded on landing, skidded off the runway and burst into flames, passengers recounted.

``It happened so quickly; it was a little bit like being in a movie,'' said Gwen Dunlop, of Toronto, who was returning from a vacation in France. Mr. Dunlop said some passengers went down emergency chutes, while others just jumped out on their own.

``We were all trying to go up a hill; it was all mud and we lost our shoes. We were just scrambling, people with children ...,'' Mr. Dunlop said

Some of the 297 passengers and 12 crew members who evacuated reached the nearby highway crowded with rush hour travellers.

AP

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