New explanation for plane crash

2005-08-05 14:13

Paris - A violent gust or sudden shift of wind, known as wind shear, may have caused an Air France jet to slide off the runway at Toronto airport on Tuesday, reports said on Friday.

According to the International Herald Tribune newspaper, preliminary reports from a Terminal Doppler Weather Radar, near Toronto's Pearson International Airport, indicated that a strong wind-shear blast, known as a "microburst", struck on or near the airport just as the Airbus A340-300 aircraft was landing.

However, according to an unnamed official close to the investigation of the accident, "complicated calculations" were still required to determine what effect it had on the plane.

Violent thunderstorms

The plane, carrying 297 passengers and a crew of 12, landed in violent thunderstorms and skidded off the end of the runway and into a gully, where it broke apart and burst into flame.

No one died in the accident, but 43 people, including the pilot, were injured.

The paper also reported that the Toronto airport, or any other Canadian airport, was not equipped with the Doppler radar system or another wind-shear detection system, known as Low-Level Wind shear Alert system (LLWAS), which might have led to a warning to stop the Air France plane from landing.

Several sources said Canadian authorities declined to install the systems because they were thought too expensive.

Weather at airport 'worsened'

No cause of the crash had yet been determined, although the severe weather was believed to have played a major part in the accident.

An aviation official with knowledge of the investigation told the newspaper that the weather at the airport worsened considerably just as the plane was landing, so that the airport condition was designated as "black", which meant no planes were allowed to land or take off.

The official also said that the plane was apparently hit with strong gusts of wind as it rolled down the runway.

In addition, Real Levasseur, the chief investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said on Thursday that a strong sudden tail wind could have given the plane an extra push down the runway.

- SAPA