All aboard survive Airbus Canada crash
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-08-03 07:03

Witnesses told Canadian television stations that the plane, had apparently skidded off the runway after landing amid lightning and rain.

In this television image, smoke and fire billow from an Air France passenger jet after it burst into flames after skidding off the runway while trying to land at Torontos Pearson International Airport, Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2005. [AP]

Debbi Wilkes, who was driving in a car on a highway alongside the airport, said it was "pouring rain" and "pelting with hail" at the time.

"We saw a bolt of lightning come down and hit something," she said.

Huge clouds of black smoke and orange flames billowed from the fuselage. Firefighters sprayed foam over the wreckage to damp down the flames.

The plane was lying off the end of a runway close to a main traffic artery. Some passengers were said by local television to have made their way to the highway from where they were taken to hospital.

Afternoon rush hour traffic quickly clogged up along the highway, Canada's busiest, as vehicles passed only a few yards from the crash site.

Emergency workers spray foam on an Air France Airbus as it burns just off the runway at Toronto's Pearson International Airport August 2, 2005. [Reuters]

Witness Corey Marx, who was standing by the highway watching planes land at the airport, told CNN: "It was about 4 o'clock. It was getting really dark. All of a sudden lightning was happening. A lot of rain was coming down. I didn't see the size of the plane but it was an Air France plane."

"It came in on the runway, everything looked good. Sounded good. Hit the runway nice and all of a sudden we heard its engines backing up."

Marx said rescue workers got to the plane within about 40 or 50 seconds.

Air France's Web site showed that flight 358 left Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris and was due to arrive at Pearson's terminal 3 on Tuesday afternoon.

Toronto airport has been closed to other traffic, with planes diverted to Ottawa and other nearby airports.

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