BREAKING News : Plane Crash At Pearson Airport

[True_Snake]

Yahoo! News Article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/cpress/20050802/ca_pr_on_na/plane_crash

Air France jet in flames outside Toronto's Pearson airport

13 minutes ago

TORONTO (CP) - An Air France passenger jet skidded off the runway and burst into flames Tuesday while trying to land in stormy weather at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.

Officials would not say how many passengers were injured, but police said a pilot and a number of passengers were taken to hospital. Sgt. Glyn Griffiths reported other injured passengers were walking around the crash site. "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 so we're trying to head them off," Griffiths reported.

"I haven't got any information on casualties at all."

Officials would not say how many passengers were on board the jet when it crashed in a wooded area in view of Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway Monday afternoon.

One report said 200 people had been on the plane. Another said the jet was an A340, which can transport as many as 350 passengers.

Black smoke billowed from the aircraft, which one witness said had split in two.

"I would say the thing is broken in half from the wing part, we're obviously going to have casualties," witness Eddy Mets, who is also an aviation expert, reported.

Reports said that it was Air France flight 358 travelling from Paris to Toronto that went down.

With little information available on injuries, dramatic scenes of the crash site were broadcast live on Canadian and American news channels.

A portion of the plane's wing could be seen jutting from the trees as smoke and flames poured from the middle of its broken fuselage. At one point, another huge plume of smoke emerged from the wreckage, but it wasn't clear whether it was from an explosion.

A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreck, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water and foam.

Police said the jet that was attempting to land when it ran into trouble in driving rain. Lightning strikes were also spotted in the area.

"An Air France plane landing on runway 2-4 went off the end of the runway (in) the area of Convert Drive and the 401 area in Mississauga," said Griffiths, of Peel Regional police.

The airport had been operating under vigilant security measures in the wake of deadly bombings in London.

No reports of deaths yet. I'm about 15 minutes from Pearson; VERY severe weather here today. Lightining all over the place! :o

Reports have it that authorities arrived within 50 seconds to the scene.

Details coming in...

Picture from a near-by traffic cam:

http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg....jpg?x=380&y=289&sig=Yf69xUit4h0j7_Z3rLFWHg--

UPDATE: ALL ACTIVITY FROM PEARSON AIRPORT HAS BEEN HALTED; no incoming flights, and of course no outgoing flights right now. The plane crashed right next to Canada's BUSIEST highway, 401.



True_Snake

 

[HHDomains]

Amazingly all reports are that there were no fatalities.

 

[True_Snake]

Yep; no casualties.

Traffic is a NIGHTMARE!


True_Snake

 

[dc1pop]

Least no one seems to have died as far as we know. Good on the emergency services for acting so promptly

 

[Sabre]

Wow, that was close to being a complete disaster, look how close it got to the road! :o

 

[True_Snake]

Yeah; just a little 'hill' that seperates the two :o .


True_Snake

 

[GJ]

No deaths! Wow!

I thought our landing was rubbish!
It was a bit like this:

\ /
--0--
/ \


0 is the plane
\
-- are the wings in diffrent places!!
/

 

[Sabre]

And, this is why I hate flying on planes! :D

They always crash I tell you!

 

[ammo]

Woah bit of luck no one was killed, amazing really.

 

[KPR]

Just heard this on the radio here wasnt untill i seen the picture i realised how bad it was. Thank god no casulties

 

[Coastalguy]

Some great shots on CTV and CBC.
Been watching it for the past 2 hours.

A miracle no one was killed.

ST

 

[Sabre]

Anyone got a link to live news broadcasting online?

 

[Coastalguy]

Anyone got a link to live news broadcasting online?

Nothing live but...

Might be able to find something here:

http://www.cbc.ca/canadanowtoronto/

And here:

http://www.pulse24.com/News/Top_Story/20050802-013/page.asp

And here (click on Corey Marx):

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/08/02/toronto.crash/index.html

I'll keep looking,
ST

 

[Sabre]

Thanks Scott.

Much appreciated

 

[Scott]

It was on Sky News for a short time. I guess it's not deemed important enough since (fortunately) there were/are no [known] fatalities.

 

[RTM]

Most importantly - appears no deaths, and even those injured (about 24 now) are minor. Absolutely amazing.

Now, on topic - AirFrance358.com and AF358 were already registered as of 17h40 EDT... sigh....

 

[Coastalguy]

Now, on topic - AirFrance358.com and AF358 were already registered as of 17h40 EDT... sigh....

Nothing surprises me anymore,
ST

 

[slaughterbeck]

At first CNN seemed to indicate many and possible all passengers had perished. I was holding my little girl at the time and I almost broke down crying, were it not for fear she would become upset too. Miracles are spontaneous, God has blessed all.

 

[GJ]

My conclusion on this is : Don't fly on Air France! Really don't! They have a bad history...

 

[Rampart]

Personally I Dont Care about the french, their fancy wines and cheeses, or anything else but if there were canadians onboard then i hope it went down softly ,lol... but hes right they have a horrible history... I too am surprised nobody was hurt too severly..