'It was a miracle no one died'
2005-08-03 08:02
Toronto - An Air France jet that may have been struck by lightning skidded off the runway and burst into flames at Toronto's airport on Tuesday, but officials said there were only 43 minor injuries.
The Airbus A340 jet carrying 297 passengers and 12 crew on a flight from Paris ended up in a ravine 200m off the runway at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.
Passengers ran from the plane amid flames and smoke. Witnesses said they saw fireballs coming from the debris after the crash.
But Air France and emergency service officials said it appeared everyone on Flight A358 had come out alive.
Forty-three people were taken to area hospitals, but their injuries were minor, Toronto Airport Authority official Steve Shaw told reporters.
Passengers told how they saw lightning flashes around them as the jet came in to land in a heavy storm.
"It seemed that the captain wasn't able to apply sufficient braking power," passenger Roel Bramer told CNN television.
"Then all of a sudden, everything went up in the air," he added. "Passengers didn't go up in the air because they were in their seats. They were in their seat belts. But there was a real roller coaster going on."
Another passenger, Olivier Dubois, told how passengers rushed to exit doors and jumped down escape chutes, with the plane already on fire.
"People were screaming and panicking ... Everybody was jumping as fast as possible and running everywhere. Because the fear was that the plane would blow up at one point," he said.
Passengers told how the power on the jet went out about one minute before the landing and how they believed it was hit by lightning.
"I saw lightning," Bramer said. "Maybe the plane had already been hit by lightning. The reason I'm mentioning that is because just as we landed, the lights turned off. And that's unusual. So I'm sure that the bad weather was responsible."
The long haul A340 jet crashed into trees and bushes in a gully that separates the airport perimeter from busy Highway 401.
Shaw said the plane went 200m past the runway and that it had been extensively damaged by fire.
Dubois said: "As soon as the plane stopped, they immediately opened the side of the plane where they couldn't see any flames, and then they told us to jump. And we all began jumping and running.
"We were running really fast... It was really, really scary. Very, very scary."
Fire crews battled thick flames and black smoke for more than an hour after the crash, which occurred when there were heavy thunder storms across the region. The airport had suspended departures and arrivals for a while because of the storm.
One witness, Corey Marks, saw the jet land and get into trouble at about 16:00.
In Montreal Canadian Transport Minister Jean Lapierre called the lack of fatalities a "miracle."
"I mean having almost 300 people - more than 300 people - come out of the plane before ... it went on fire was a miracle," he said.
- AFP