Markus

Yikes!
Reports coming in of crash of an Air France yet at Toronto's pearson airport (I can see part of airport from the office)

We can see the smoke blowing from the east to the west, and can see pictures from the highway traffic cams looking at the airport.

G-STAR

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0...191024,00.html

Doesn't look good...

Recaro

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=17023

Hope everyones ok.

Markus

Air France flight AF358 from Paris to Toronto.

Apparently skidded off runway whilst attempting to land.

We've had attroctious weather here today, massive thunderstorms and torrential rain.

http://www.pulse24.com/ = Left hand side for Traffic Cam (401 nr Etobicoke Creek, and 410 near Courtneypark Road, for pictures) Right hand side (middle of page) for Live audio and video feed.

Markus

Looking at that pic, the white line in the middle of the pic is the aircraft wing.

Not good at all.

FlightMan

Not looking good, although reports are of some pax and both pilot and co-pilot making it out. I'm suprised at the the lenght of time its taking the emergency services to extinguish the fire. Still lots of flame visible. As always its the first 90 secs thats crucial so lets hope the flight crew got the pax out asap.
Some initial reports saying that the plane lost height rapidly over the runway, then dropped quickly. Possibly burst tyres increases runway rollout + wet runway caused this. Also reports of a lightning strike whilst rolling out, but I can't see that causing this.

This will probably end up as a wx event, windshear or a micro burst.

Thoughts to those on board, and their families.

KiwiGTI

Apparently everyone has been evacuated safely.

Soulgirl

It's a long time since I have seen and used the word pax - you're obviously someone in travel

G-STAR

Let's hope that's the case - nothing short of a minor miracle if it is.

FlightMan

I work at Heathrow, so its becoming a habit. I've swapped 20 years of IP, HDD, USB for PAX, WX, CDA, ILS etc etc.

Looks like they all got out. Fantastic news.

KiwiGTI

That'll be the first A340 to have a hull loss.

little-ginge

yep, reports that all 309 ppl on the plane survived... nice one..

Markus

Reports are of between 11 and 40 people sustained injuries.

Must say that the storm occuring at the time was absolutley terrible, I'm rather suprised any flights were allowed to land at all, especially seeing as the airport was under red alert/condition red (I forget the exact term, but it means there is no ground service at all due to thunderstorms) and thus if the plane had landed it'd not be going anywhere until the alert was cancelled.

Glad that there were no fatalities

Hopefully more news will come about how the crash occured. Passenger reports state that there was a loss of power just before landing (lightening strike?), and that there was a big bump (downburst due to windshear?)

Leslie

Glad no one seems to be seriously hurt.

Like Markus I am surprised that the pilot elected to land in the middle of a severe thunderstorm. Its the sort of thing that you would only do if you are seriously short of fuel and nowhere else to go. I had a lot of frightening experiences around thunderstorms and it is not long before you develop a healthy respect for the power of Mother Nature. He certainly learned the hard way. Thunderstorms dont usually last that long anyway and it is easy enough to lose a bit of time in the hold until it is safer. It is usually the pilot's choice whether to attempt a landing having been advised of the weather conditions.

Les