Breaking News: Air France flight 358 skids off runway
 

in toronto. It's on CNN right now.

With all the rain today I'm betting it hydoplaned.... we've had severe thunderstorms all day.

Oh and for those of you watching - the highway in the foreground is one of (if not the) busiest highways in North America (never mind Canada)... which means the commute is going to be a disaster today (3hrs +)

Updated: 05:01 PM EDT
Passenger Jet on Fire in Toronto

ABC News

The Air France jet encountered trouble while landing Tuesday in Toronto, police said.

TORONTO (Aug. 2) - A passenger jetliner caught fire Tuesday after skidding off a runway in a fierce thunderstorm at Pearson airport in Toronto. Black smoke billowed from the wreckage as the aircraft burned.

A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreck, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water. The operation was broadcast live on television in Canada and the United States.

The flaming ruin was next to the four-lane Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, and some cars and trucks stopped on the roadway after the crash.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

Police said the plane was an Air France passenger jet that was trying to land when it ran into trouble. There was a storm - with lightning, strong wind gusts and even hail - in the area at the time.

Police Sgt. Glyn Griffiths said it was not know if any passengers had been taken from the plane.

Leah Walker, a radio reporter in Toronto, said she saw a third of the plane fall and that the rest became a fireball. ''This plane attempted to land in some very fierce weather we had today,'' she said.

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 neighborhood, killing 265 people. Safety investigators concluded that the crash was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively.


AP-NY-08-02-05 16:41 EDT

Scary!

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Co...2p.hmedium.jpg :eek:

Well it looks like everyone survived... and only 14 reported minor injuries :D

If anyone saw the CBC footage (the up-close video shot from a car) you'll get a good idea of the weather around the time of the landing... in some shots the rain was coming down so heavily that they could get a shot of the outside of the car through the windows.

Honey, you don't know what rain is until you've lived in Vancouver. I'm just saying........

Hey I also don't know what it's like to have a crappy hockey team either. I'm just saying....... ;):p

And this is precisely why I hate flying!

I'm glad everyone is alright!

i'm so glad everyone escaped alive. The airline industry certainly doesn't need another disaster

It's great to see that everybody made it out alive.

wah wah wah...there is a reason why our licence plates read "Beautiful British Columbia".

Toronto is fine and dandy, but after a year of living there, the pollution started to drive me a little bat-isht.

Yeah, but there's so much more to Ontario than Toronto (even though we are the centre of the universe ;) )

That may be, but I would rather be skiing and snowboarding on arguably the best skiing in the world, than sitting inside watching any hockey game in winter.

We'll just have to agree to disagree I guess.

Anyhow, back to the thread, it sounds like the emergency crews did a phenomenal job of helping the people and averting a huge disaster.

Ahhh, see I hate skiing/snowboarding, so Toronto is the perfect place for me.

Anyway, I agree that our emergency service personnel did a great job, but the DJ on the radio this morning, and I will agree with him, said that they did not get the recognition they deserved.