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Toronto crash probe focuses on speed, runway
04 Aug 2005 21:10:18 GMT
Source: Reuters
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(Adds details, comments) By Cameron French TORONTO, Aug 4 (Reuters) - The Air France jet that crashed in Toronto this week was moving at nearly 100 mph (160 km/h) as it careened off the end of the runway into a ravine, investigators said on Thursday Two days after the crash, which miraculously claimed no lives even as fire gutted the Airbus A340, investigators are focusing on why the plane was unable to stop after it touched down during a severe thunderstorm. They will probe the plane's steering and brake units, as well as the tire tracks left on the runway, in an investigation that could take months. "Because this was a landing and overrun accident, it's of interest to us where the plane touched down," Real Levasseur, lead investigator with Canada's Transportation Safety Board, told reporters. The aircraft probably landed at about 160 mph (260 km/h), but had slowed to only 95 mph (150 km/h) by the time it ran off the end of the runway, he said. However, it may take a few days longer to get concrete information about the plane's final moments, as Canadian investigators said they lack the proper equipment to decode the plane's "black box" flight recorders. Levasseur said the recorders, one of them blackened and soot covered after the fire, will be sent to France so safety officials there can extract the information, a process that will likely take two or three days. The plane, which had been en route from Paris to Toronto, was reduced to a burned-out carcass after the accident, with pieces of wing and a gleaming, white nose visible among charred and mangled wreckage. All 309 passengers and crew were able to make it off the plane before it was consumed. A few dozen received minor injuries, including broken bones, as they left the aircraft. Levasseur said investigators were braving hot and humid conditions as they probed the still-smoldering wreckage. "There's a lot of mud, there are pieces that are there that are very sharp. It smells like smoke, so it's not very nice around the site, and it's also very dangerous," he said. CREW REPORTED NO PROBLEMS. Investigators say the crew reported no problems as the plane approached Toronto's Pearson International Airport, and the landing appeared normal. "I have no indication that the aircraft was not functioning properly at the time of landing," Levasseur said. Attention has focused on weather conditions at time of the landing, and whether a wet runway could have caused aquaplaning. The airport was under a red alert as the plane landed, which means there is a danger of lightning and thunder. Questions have also surfaced about the position of the runway, which ends just short of a steep ravine. In a similar incident in 1978, an Air Canada DC-9 plunged into the ravine after an aborted takeoff, killing two passengers and injuring 105. Investigators said they are looking at a coroner's recommendation from the time that the airport install a causeway. A Toronto law firm will hold a public meeting next week to inform passengers how they should proceed if they want to make a legal claim. One lawyer at the firm said he had already been in contact with passengers about a possible lawsuit. "We're looking into it, there's no doubt we're looking into it," said Paul Miller, a lawyer with Will Barristers in Toronto. Air France <AIRF.PA> has said the Airbus <EAD.PA> plane had joined its fleet in September 1999 -- making it a relative newcomer compared with the large number of far older planes still flying.
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