Air France passengers survive crash
Aug. 2, 2005. 06:20 PM
243 survive jet crash at Pearson
Toronto Star
NICOLAAS VAN RIJN
WITH STAR STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
Injured passengers and crew flagged down startled motorists on Highway 401 after an Air France jet carrying 243 passengers crashed at Toronto's Pearson International Airport while attempting to land during a thunderstorm this afternoon.
Witnesses said the plane appeared to be making a normal descent until the very last moments, when it careened off the runway and skidded into a ravine, where it burst into flames as passengers and crew raced to get off the plane using emergency chutes.
There were no fatalities, and about 14 injuries.
The airport was on Red Alert at the time, indicating special measures were being taken because of severe weather issues, including lightning and wind shear.
Among the survivors seeking help was the co-pilot of the stricken craft.
"We located the co-pilot on Highway 401," said Peel police sergeant Glyn Griffiths.
"A pilot has gone to hospital, and they were picked up on the 401 and a number of other passengers were wandering around the area," Griffiths said.
Toronto ambulance spokesperson Larry Roberts said the passengers just made it off before the aircraft burst into flames about 200 metres to the west of Runway 24L, abutting the busy Highway 401.
"It looks like the passengers got off the plane before it got fully engulfed in flames," Roberts said.
The Airbus A340, which can be configured to carry up to 350 people, crashed at 4:03 p.m., Pearson airport officials said, adding passengers were able to exit the plane before the aircraft broke into flames.
Roberts said Toronto's emergency services were quickly able to assemble several buses to transport ambulatory patients - the "walking wounded," he called them - to area hospitals.
At 5 p.m. half a dozen people milled about in the area near the crash, waiting for ambulances.
Roberts said injuries in such an accident could range from burns to broken bones, bruises and sprained ankles from sliding down the emergency chutes.
Eyewitness David Dennis, 13, at the airport's Sheraton hotel awaiting his mother's arrival on a flight from Chicago, stared out the window and saw "a massive wall of smoke" rising from the crash site a little over a kilometre away.
"The smoke wasn't that hight, but it was very wide," said Dennis.
The crash led to the immediate shutdown of Pearson.
Dennis' father David, in an arrival lounge at Terminal 3, said
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