An Airbus A340-300 has crashed in Toronto Pearson airport (CYYZ) after landing. It seems that bad weather was to blame for the accident.
I wonder though if they'll ground ALL A340's until a subsequent investigation is completed? This is by the way the 3rd A340 to be destroyed. Another Air France A340 caught fire after undergoing routine checks, and another was destroyed by rebels who burnt the plane down.
chris
08-03-2005, 03:25 AM
Airbus press release on the matter:
Airbus regrets to confirm that an A340-300 operated by Air France was involved in an accident at approximately 16h00 Toronto (Canada) time. The aircraft was operating a scheduled service, Flight AFR 358, from Paris Charles de Gaulle airport to Toronto. Reports indicate that there were 297 passengers and 12 crew on board, and that there are no casualties.
The aircraft involved in the accident, registered under the number F-GLZQ, was MSN (Manufacturer Serial Number) 289, delivered to Air France from the production line in September 1999. The aircraft had accumulated approximately nearly 28,500 flight hours in more than 3,700 flights. It was powered by four CFM International CFM 56 engines. At this time no further factual information is available.
In line with ICAO international convention, Airbus will provide full technical assistance to the Investigation Authorities led by the Canadian Safety Board, with the support of the French Investigation Board (BEA). A team of five specialists from Airbus is being dispatched to Toronto.
This is the first ever accident of an A340 aircraft. The A340-300 is a four-engine long range wide-body. The first of the type entered service in February 1993. By the end of June 2005, 304 A340s had been delivered and are in service with 45 operators. To date, the entire fleet has accumulated some more than 7.5 million flight hours in some 1.1 million flights.
Airbus will make further factual information available as soon as the details have been confirmed. However, the investigation remains the entire responsibility of the relevant authorities and it would be inappropriate for Airbus to enter into any form of speculation into the cause of the accident.
Airbus will do all it is possible to contribute to determining the factors leading to this accident in order to further enhance flight safety.
Commander
08-03-2005, 03:27 AM
I think it is important to mention that there were no deaths in this accident. Some say it is a miracle that nobody was killed in a plane crash with over 300 people aboard... I tend to agree. -^
ARTICLE:
Survival by more than 300 in Toronto jet crash 'miraculous'
full image
A man watches from a nearby highway as the tail section of an Air France passenger jet burns after skidding off the runway during a landing at Pearson International Airport. (CP PHOTO/Jorge Rios)
TORONTO (CP) - Descending from a blackened, lightning-streaked sky, more than 300 terrified passengers and crew escaped with their lives Tuesday after their plane skidded down a rain-slicked runway at Pearson International Airport and toppled into a wooded ravine before bursting into flames.
Even more spectacular than the fiery end of Air France Flight 358, which came at the height of rush hour and within full view of Canada's busiest highway, was the fact that the crash claimed no lives, leaving just 43 of the 297 passengers and 12 crew members with little more than minor injuries.
Related stories:
Wind shear possible cause of Air France crash: experts
Passengers applauded landing, then chaos reigned
What some survivors had to say about ordeal
Crash has ripple effect on flights across Canada
"It happened so quickly," said Gwen Dunlop, a Toronto resident who was on the flight on her way home from a summer vacation in France.
"It was a little like being in a movie. It was scary, because it did land OK for a few seconds and we actually clapped - we clapped because we were down. We clapped and only seconds later there was a big, big (impact)."
Seconds later, the cabin rapidly began to fill with smoke as passengers scrambled to get off the plane, Dunlop said.
"At some point the wing was off and it was smoking badly," she said. "The oxygen masks never came down. The plane was filling up with smoke."
Many passengers, including one of the co-pilots, escaped the wreckage in the moments after the crash and climbed out of Etobicoke Creek ravine to flag down drivers along the busiest automotive thoroughfare in Canada, said Peel police Sgt. Glyn Griffiths.
"We located the co-pilot on Highway 401," Griffiths said.
Passengers were buffeted with heavy rain and howling winds as they scrambled up the muddy banks of the ravine in an effort to get to safety - and away from the flaming wreckage.
"There was the fear of the explosion because we were all trying to go up a hill that was all mud," Dunlop said.
"We had lost our shoes, we were just scrambling, and there were people with children. The rain was just coming down, and the wind and the lightning. We were just thrown into the weather and thrown into everything. There were people climbing over seats to get out."
Everyone on board the Airbus 340 jet - including 104 Canadian passengers - was able to get off the plane before it caught fire. It was the first crash of an Airbus 340, which is capable of carrying 350 passengers, in 13 years of commercial service.
"We are very, very satisfied that there were no fatalities and no major injuries," said Steve Shaw, a spokesman for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, which manages the busy international airport.
"The passengers were able to clear the aircraft before the fire broke out, but that's an unconfirmed report," Shaw said.
Several area hospitals braced for an onslaught of injuries that never came. A one-year-old baby was taken to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children for smoke inhalation and would likely be kept overnight for observation.
Another 13 people were taken to William Osler Health Centre in west Toronto and two others to the Peel Memorial Emergency Department in Brampton, to the north. No details of their condition were made available.
The federal Transportation Safety Board wasn't offering any clues Tuesday about the cause of the crash, but a team would be taking over the site and recovering the flight's cockpit voice recorder and data recorder to piece together what happened.
"It's like a series of crime scene investigations," said spokesman Conrad Bellehumeur.
The agency will also interview passengers, crew, witnesses and air traffic controllers, and review both the radar and voice versions of recordings of the air traffic control activity, Bellehumeur said.
"We're going to follow every lead and as soon as we see something of importance that might have contributed to the crash, we'll make that known publicly. Normally accidents of this kind are not caused by one single factor."
Late Tuesday evening the flight's passengers - many looking weary and dishevelled and in various states of undress, swaddled in red or blue tartan airline-issue blankets - were taken to a nearby hotel to be reunited with their families.
At the crash site, flames and black smoke could be seen shooting from the downed plane's broken fuselage for hours before crews finally doused the stubborn fire.
Moments after the aircraft crashed - 200 metres beyond the end of the runway amid lightning strikes and driving rain at 4:03 p.m. - dirty smoke billowed across the landscape, obscuring the view for passing drivers as the acrid smell of burning jet fuel hung heavy in the air, even several kilometres away.
Jennifer McCluskey, 22, was watching the storm from her office window when a loud roar from the vicinity of the airport told her something was terribly wrong.
"All of sudden I hear this roar, and I look over and it was the Air France plane and it just kept going off the runway," McCluskey said.
"It seemed like it was in slow motion. And it cleared the runway and went into the gully and exploded, burst into flames . . . as soon as it went into the gully, it burst into flames."
McCluskey and her co-workers said it seemed to take a long time for emergency vehicles to arrive on the scene.
"It seemed like an eternity," she said. "We were all just awestruck. Everybody had the same reaction. Everybody just wanted to cry."
The fact no one was killed in the crash was "miraculous," said acting Peel police Sgt. Craig Platt. "It's a relief there are no fatalities."
Air France issued a statement saying it was making arrangements to help families stranded in Canada.
"Air France is doing everything possible to take care of the passengers of this flight and bring the necessary assistance to their families and loved ones," the airline said.
Passenger Roel Bramar said he saw lightning in the sky as the plane was descending.
"Just as we landed, the lights turned off and that's unusual," Bramar told CBC Newsworld. "The captain wanted to lower the plane as quickly as possible."
Glenn Schiller, a passenger in a plane that had already landed on the tarmac, watched the scene unfold.
"At the time the rain was coming down sideways," he said. "It was a vicious, vicious thunderstorm."
Thunderstorms create the possibility of wind shear - the sudden, dangerous air currents that can push an aircraft into the ground during takeoff and landing. It was not immediately apparent whether the plane had been struck by lightning.
As emergency crews sped to the scene, commuters on their way home from work on the multi-lane highway became snared in a massive traffic jam. At one point, another huge plume of smoke emerged from the wreckage, but it was unclear 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. By 8 p.m., authorities were reporting that the fire had been extinguished.
Within minutes of the crash, with scant details about the injuries, the number of passengers and circumstances of the crash available, the spectacle was being broadcast live on television in Canada and the United States, much of it with the help of automated Ministry of Transportation cameras mounted to monitor the flow of highway traffic.
Perhaps the best indication of how serious the crash appeared to be at the time came from Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson, who issued a statement saying she was "horrified" and "deeply saddened" to hear of the accident.
"My heart goes out to all of those involved, and my thoughts and prayers are with them and their families," Clarkson said.
Federal Transport Minister Jean Lapierre also expressed his best wishes to the passengers and their family members, and said he would appoint an official observer to maintain the channels of communication between the ministry and the Transportation Safety Board.
"Any safety deficiencies uncovered through this investigation would be addressed immediately," Lapierre said.
Flights scheduled to land at Pearson were diverted to other Canadian airports.
The most serious plane crash at Pearson, Canada's busiest airport, was more than 30 years ago. In 1970 an Air Canada DC-8 jet, en route from Montreal to Los Angeles, went down north of the airport, killing all 109 people aboard.
The last major jumbo jet crash in North America was on Nov. 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 lost part of its tail and plummeted into a New York City neighbourhood, killing 265 people. Safety investigators concluded the crash was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively.
Pearson had been operating under vigilant security measures in the wake of deadly bombings in London.
chris
08-03-2005, 03:29 AM
The crew obviously did an incredible job to get everyone off the plane so quickly. It seems, from the sketchy reports so far that the plane landing in extremely severe weather may have experienced a malfunction caused by the weather - possibly. And I say that with caution.
Lightning strikes surely can't do planes any good, especially not fly by wire ones like most modern Boeing and Airbus planes, if it was indeed hit by one.
chris
08-03-2005, 03:53 AM
It's sort of similar to the Qantas 747-400 which ran off the end of the runway in Bangkok IIRC, although the Qantas plane wasn't badly damaged and did return to service. But weather conditions were also bad.
Another severe weather accident IIRC was when a Singapore jumbo went down the wrong runway - one undergoing repairs. It sped down the runway and slammed into parked excavators causing a horrific accident.
(Totally unmistakable low landing approach over the beach).
Ayce
08-03-2005, 05:11 AM
From my location,not too far from Pearson, all I saw was the smoke, and tbh, I thought it was a low rain cloud because it was raining so hard at the time, it looked to me like rain was coming out of the "cloud". This morning is weird,because I usually see planes landing and taking off over my building all the time, but today, nothing coming or going. (I'm east of the airport)
It is amazing to me that no one was killed. Hats off to the crew. :applaud:
chris
08-03-2005, 05:30 AM
CYYZ 022020Z 34024G33KT 3SM +TSRA FEW015 OVC040TCU 23/ RMK SF2TCU6 CB ASOCTD Pearson, 2nd of the month at 2020UTC Wind from NNW at 24knots, Gusting 33KT Visablity 3 Miles, Strong Thunderstorms and Rain. Few clouds at 1500ft Overcast at 4000ft.
The airport was apparently closed for take-offs, but landings were still permitted. It seems that at the time of F-GLZQ's landing the weather worsened, and the accident could have been the cause of either, or both standing water on the runway and a lightning strike.
Standing water on a runway is certainly hazardous and does decrease braking performance.
Air France press-release:
Roissy, 3 août 2005 - 4h45
Nationalités des passagers du vol AF358
Le vol AF 358, en provenance de Paris, accidenté à son atterrissage à l'aéroport de Toronto transportait 297 passagers et 12 membres d'équipage.
Parmi les passagers se trouvaient notamment :
- 101 passagers de nationalité Française
- 104 passagers de nationalité Canadienne
- 19 passagers de nationalité Italienne
- 14 passagers de nationalité Américaine
- 8 passagers de nationalité Indienne
- 7 passagers de nationalité Britannique
La compagnie met tout en oeuvre pour prendre en charge les passagers de ce vol et apporter l'aide nécessaire à leurs familles et à leurs proches.
Des numéros d'assistance ont été ouverts à leur intention :
Pour la France, le 0 800 800 812 (numéro vert)
Pour le Canada, +33 1 56 93 10 00
In French but the key-points are easy enough to understand.
Frank N. O.
08-03-2005, 05:54 AM
Fantastic that no-one got killed considering how serious it sounds like from the text. One question regarding the last line about water on the runway. Can't a plane reverse the thrust enough to slow down in such situations?
Frank
chris
08-03-2005, 05:57 AM
The plane seemed to be landing at an elevated speed already, which seems normal in such conditions, so that largely factors out the thrust reversing efforts which it seems the crew did use.
chris
08-03-2005, 07:21 AM
Hmm, wondering if I were to use my FS2004, and ActiveSky, and enter in the exact time and date of the accident, maybe we can get an idea of what the weather conditions were like - since it grabs it's data from real weather stations, and archives it.
I don't have any A340's in my FS2004, but MS's 747 should do I suppose, it's an equally big jumbo like the A340.
And this is apparently ATC communications at that moment:
http://www.liveatc.net/.archive/cyyz/CYYZ-Toronto-Aug-02-05-1600.mp3
Wazza
08-04-2005, 02:23 AM
Fortunate that everyone made it out alive. Let's hope the injured aren't too bad. Particularly the pilot, as they're last off the plane. Hope they're not sufferring burns.
Anyway, Chris, jetphotos doesn't allow remote linking to jpgs, but rather to the photo ID, with all the advertising.
I keep hearing about wind sheer, but there probably was some around in that rough weather, but unlikely to cause this, as it didn't just plummet to the ground. It failed to stop in time, and there's 3 hydraulic system in place on A343's and special pneumatic braking systems.... Now just have to wait and see for the official verdict. There's so much speculation, and crazy talk on airliners.net now. &(
300's series certainly is a decent size aircraft. Not as big obviously, as the 500, or the extremely long 600 series.
I've always said the engines seem, and sound so underpowered. Often refer to them as the hairdryer engines.
Here's the same model aircraft, at Auckland, showing the size up close.
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/828668/L/
chris
08-04-2005, 03:44 AM
I've heard the plane was indeed hit by lightning.
The A340's and the A330's (both are closely related) are mostly designed to be very economical to run widebody planes.