A Miricale in my Book!!

[dman]

Shocked passengers and crew flagged down startled motorists on Highway 401 after an Air France jet carrying 297 passengers and 12 crew crashed, skidded and burst into flames in a ravine at Toronto's Pearson International Airport while attempting to land during a thunderstorm this afternoon.
Everyone survived; only a few passengers suffered minor injuries.

"The passengers were able to clear the aircraft before the fire broke out," said Steve Shaw, vice-president of corporate affairs for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, which operates Pearson.

As passengers scrambled across a fence and up an embankment to traffic rushing by on the nearby 401, Canada's busiest highway, explosions and bright flames ripped through the crumpled fuselage behind them.

Stunned motorists pulled over to watch the smoke plume crawl skyward as survivors milled about awaiting help.

Passenger Roel Bramar, who recalled "running like crazy" after the crash, said the final approach seemed fast to him.

"I thought we were coming in a little too fast," he told CBC Newsworld. "The landing appeared to be okay until, it seemed, the captain wasn't able to apply sufficient braking power.

"Then, all of a sudden, everything went up in the air," Bramar recalled. While passengers remained belted into their seats, "there was a real roller coaster going on. We had a hell of a roller coaster going down the ravine."

After the plane came "to an abrupt stop - and that's putting it mildly," Bramar said - cabin attendants opened the doors and passengers scrambled to emergency chutes, all making it out as heavy black smoke began to billow up behind them.

"All I did was run like crazy," Bramar said. "I was the second one off the plane and everyone was running like crazy."

Bramar said the plane was "totally full" and recalled seeing lightning as the aircraft made its descent into Pearson.

Witnesses said the plane appeared to be making a normal descent until the very last moments, when it careened off Runway 24-Left and skidded into a ravine, where it burst into flames as passengers and crew raced to get off the plane using emergency chutes.

An airport maintenance worker saw the Airbus land, and knew instinctively it was wrong.

"Usually they land right in front of this building; this one landed halfway down the runway," the man said. "As soon as we saw it land it was like `Buddy's not going to make it.'

"I hope everyone is all right," the worker continued. "I've been working here 9 years and I've never seen anything like this."

The GTAA's Shaw didn't want to go into the possible causes of the crash.

"It touched down and overshot the runway by some 200 metres," Shaw said, lauding the airport's emergency response.

"This airport is a safe and secure airport," he said. "The fact is, there was a good response and passengers were evacuated."

Air France confirmed there were no fatalities; emergency workers at the scene estimated about 24 injuries. Most passengers were able to continue their journeys after making it safely out of the crash scene; customs officers were among the emergency workers deployed to guard the wreckage.

Passengers interviewed after the crash said cabin attendants quickly opened exit doors and deployed emergency chutes after the aircraft juddered to a halt in the ravine, just metres from Highway 401, which was already packed with homeward-bound commuters.

The airport was on Red Alert at the time, indicating special measures were being taken because of severe weather, including lightning and wind shear. Some eyewitnesses said they saw lightning strike the plane, and some passengers said after the crash that the cabin lights briefly went out just seconds before the crash.

Another witness said he heard the jet's engines power up as the pilot engaged the craft's thrust deflectors to bring his airplane to a stop.

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.

Survivors emerging from the wreckage said the jet, Air France Flight 358 from Paris to Toronto, was full.

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 high, but it was very wide," said Dennis.

The crash led to an immediate but brief shutdown of Pearson.

Dennis' father David, in an arrival lounge at Terminal 3, said a Toronto airport official told people awaiting passengers that no further planes were arriving or leaving.

Nevertheless, he said, "the screens are still posting flight and arrival times, as if nothing had happened."

Hours after the crash, airport crash tenders continued to pour foam on the burning wreckage, resting in a green field at the southwest end of the airport as the airliner's blue, red and white Air France tail jutted proudly from the billowing smoke.

The Airbus A340, which arrived here from Charles de Gaulle International Airport outside Paris, is among the newest in the world airline fleet.

No planes were being serviced at Pearson during the Red Alert, called whenever there's danger of lightning strikes, and passenger Glenn Schiller was sitting in a plane that had already landed when the Air France jet came hurtling down from the sky.

"Looking out the window to the back (of) my aircraft, a thick, yellow billow of smoke began," Schiller told television station CP24. "Emergency vehicles are flying around a couple thousand metres away across on the runway," he recalled.

Schiller said he and other passengers awaiting to deboard were told by their flight deck crew that there'd been "a landing incident."

"At the time the rain was coming down sideways," he said. "It was a vicious, vicious thunderstorm."

[JJ Irani]

Which once again proves that you will go ONLY when you gotta go!!

[Uncle-AJ]

A testament to good safety training and good flight attendants on modern aircraft.

[Rockrolex]

I wonder if their luggage got transferred to their connecting flights.

Since this happened in my home town, and I know the emergency management spokespeople, I gotta comment...

Impressive but not amazing there were no fatalities. An Air Canada DC-9 did the exact same thing on the same runway, into the same forest in '79, and a couple of people died, but then aircraft technology has improved dramatically since then. The GTAA and GTA emergency personnel are impecably trained and kudos to the on-flight staff for evacuating so quickly. That's what's amazing!

The thunderstorms we get in Ontario this time of year can be absolutely unbelievably violent and come out of nowhere. I remember racing in one in the Tour du Canada years ago and a racer from the Dutch national team said he'd never seen such a violent thunderstorm (it was a deluge with over 50 strikes of lightning in about 10 minutes).

I wonder if anyone was injured on Highway 401 though. Where the airport is situated is sort of a cauldron for hwys 401, 427 and 400... and since it was the start of rush hour, I can only imagine traffice was fecked-up for hours and backed up for miles and miles with likely a plethora of fender-benders. Man am I glad I don't live in that city anymore.

How many times have a driven by that exact spot, with a huge plane overhead, hoping nothing happens? Too many to count.

Based on some interviews I saw last night with people who were on the plane, it was in flames long before it came to a stop. Good job by all involved to get out before anyone was burnt alive - the accounts I saw indicated that the plane was totally engulfed in a very short time after coming to a stop.

I still think it's quite amazing that everyone made it out.

[dman]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

I wonder if their luggage got transferred to their connecting flights.

That is terrible, very funny but terrible Ed!

[dman]

Originally Posted by Avalon

I still think it's quite amazing that everyone made it out.

That is what I was thinking Al, it is great that this time we are not counting bodies and trying to match dental records.

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by dman

That is terrible, very funny but terrible Ed!

I know. It's that nasty streak in me that keeps popping out at the most inopportune times. I can't tell you how often it has gotten me in trouble. But I can't help myself.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

I know. It's that nasty streak in me that keeps popping out at the most inopportune times. I can't tell you how often it has gotten me in trouble. But I can't help myself.

How come I don't seem to have a problem with it?

[Rockrolex]

Originally Posted by JJ Irani

How come I don't seem to have a problem with it?

You've just become immune to it.

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by Rockrolex

You've just become immune to it.

You can say that again....on second thoughts, DON'T!!

[dman]

Especially since most of it is aimed at you JJ, LMAO!!

[JJ Irani]

Originally Posted by dman

Especially since most of it is aimed at you JJ, LMAO!!

LOL! Okay, TOSSERS, Inc., gotta rush off to work....just past 7.15 am on Thursday morning; but before I go, Daren, you might want to give me 100 for that atrocious spelling of "Miracle". Come on, come on....get to it, you tosser.

Cheers - JJ

[dman]

JJ, if you did not realize by now that I can't spell then there is no hope for you. I also gave up trying or worrying along time ago.

[Rockrolex]

What spelliing error? LOL!!

[padi56]

remarkable but glad there were only minor injuries