I regret to inform the forum that an Air France plane capable of transporting 300 people with an unknown amount of people has burst into flames after it attempted to land due to a possible microburst due to extreme thunderstorms this afternoon.
It bounced violently off the ground according to witnesses and ran out of runway.
Unknown casualties at this time.
Thease people and their families need our prayers.
Check CNN at the moment. Greater Toronto Authority on Transportation will be commenting soon according to Wolf Blitzer.
To correct myself, it is the Greater Toronto Airport Authority. They along with Fire Departments from Mississauga and Brampton are currently attempting to put out the fire. Toronto Fire Department is on stand by.
Encouraging enough, I heard on the news, a T.O Fire Captain reported that there are survivors and have been taken to local hospitals.
No foul play; just an unfortunate tangle with mother nature.
297 passengers and 12 crew
no one killed - no one with serious injuries
severe rweather storm rain-winds-lightning
plane hit the runway hard and bounced quite few times
and ran off the end of the runway into a culvert
passenger said it was the worst roller coaster ride
he’d been on. on stopping, chutes opened
and passengers ran from the accident as fast
as they could.
Remember a takeoff crash on that same runway some 25 or more years ago when an Air Canada DC-9 taking off on that runway had a tire blow and that in turn took out an engine. The pilot tried his best to get the plane stopped in the runway he had left but ran over the ravine and the plane broke in half. Fortunately their was no fire but three passengers died if my memory serves me right. I was in my eighteen wheeler and witnessed the entire event. Myself and another driver pulled onto the shoulder and I took a furniture pad from my van and threw over the barbed wire and we both climbed the fence arriving at the crash site in time to help passengers from the plane. When all of the emergency crews arrived the RCMP gave us a ride back to our trucks and we were on our way once again after they took our statements.
No one was killed! The landing is always the part I’m skiddish on when I fly. Even though it sucks that the plane crashed it truly is a blessing that everyone could walk away and I’m just happy about that.
IIRC, a microburst is what brought down Delta 191 at DFW 20 years ago (Anniversary was Tuesday, I think.) One auto driver on the freeway was hit and killed, in addition to most of the passengers. I believe the passengers that survived did so because the tail separated from the rest of the plane.The rest of it burned. This was the cra***hat caused the FAA to rethink their monitoring networks around US airports. Mother Nature will not tolerate being taken lightly.
To: WDGF
Toronto Airport was aware of a possibility of a microburst
and was issuing a red alert and was in the process of
shutting down that runway and diverting planes to a
longer runway & possibility of closing down the airport
entirely. If the plane had landed a few minutes later
it would have possibly landed on the longer runway
and’not skidded into the ravine which I believe split the
plane and started the fire. great work by the attendants
in evacuating the plane so quickly. This accident
happened near the busy 401 highway & many cars stopped
to pick up the passengers and ferry them to the airport…