An Air France passenger jet skidded off the end of the runway and burst into flames after landing in a thunderstorm at Toronto’s Pearson International airport on Tuesday, media reports said.
There were up to 200 passengers on the jet on the Paris-Toronto flight, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and other media, but Air France later said there were no deaths in the crash.
Witnesses said the plane was cut in two and at least two fireballs were seen coming from the debris after the crash.
Passengers hurt in the crash were taken to local hospitals, a fire service captain told CNN.
Captain David Sheen of the Toronto Fire Service said he was told survivors were taken to hospitals but was unable to say how many were involved or give other details.
”I don’t know whether they were from the plane. We just heard that a few casualties were taken to local hospitals,” the officer told CNN.
The long-haul A340 jet, which can carry up to 250 people, overshot the runway and crashed into trees and bushes in a gully that separates the airport perimeter from a busy highway.
Thick flames and black smoke billowed from the jet and fire crews were at the scene.
An Air France spokesperson in Montreal said the carrier put a crisis team in place.
The jet was flight AF358, the airline said.
The incident occurred when there were heavy thunderstorms across the region. The airport had suspended departures and arrivals for a while because of the storm.
The jet was probably hit by lightning just before it landed, passengers said. They said the power on the jet went off about one minute before it landed.
”I saw lightning,” passenger Roel Bramar told CNN. ”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.”
A witness, Corey Marks, told CNN he saw the jet land and get into trouble at about 4pm local time.
”It was getting really dark and all of a sudden lightning was happening, there was a lot of rain coming down,” he said.
”And this plane — I didn’t see the size of the plane but it was an Air France plane — came in on the runway. Everything looked and sounded good. It hit the runway nice and all of a sudden, we heard his engines backing up.”
Marks added that the jet ”went straight into the valley and cracked in half. Whatever you’re seeing now, you’re probably seeing the back end of the plane because it’s way down in there.
”Two of us that were standing here, we were about to run over and try to help, but it went up in such flames.”
Marks said he saw two fireballs come from the plane. — AFP
