Air France Flight 358

thumb|right|Path of Flight 358. Dotted lines indicate the normal landing trajectory.

Air France Flight 358 was a regularly scheduled international flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, France, to Toronto Pearson International Airport in Ontario, Canada. On the afternoon of 2 August 2005, while landing at Pearson airport, the Airbus A340-313E operating the route overran the runway and crashed into nearby Etobicoke Creek, approximately beyond the end of the runway. All 309 passengers and crew on board the Airbus survived, but 12 people sustained serious injuries. The accident highlighted the vital role played by highly trained flight attendants during an emergency.

Due to inclement weather, 540 flights departing and arriving at Pearson were cancelled. Many small and mid-sized aircraft due to arrive were diverted to other Canadian airports in Ottawa, Hamilton, and Winnipeg. Most of the larger aircraft were diverted to Montreal, Syracuse, New York, and Buffalo, New York. Flights from Vancouver were turned back. The crash of Air France Flight 358 was the biggest crisis to hit Toronto Pearson since the airport's involvement in Operation Yellow Ribbon.

Jean Lapierre, the Canadian minister of transport, referred to Flight 358 as a "miracle" because everyone on board survived, despite the aircraft's complete destruction. the "Toronto Miracle," the " 'Miracle' Escape," and the "Miracle of Runway 24L." It was delivered to Air France in September 1999, and had logged 3,711 flights Three of the passengers were seated in crew seats, one in the third occupant seat of the flight deck and two in the flight crew rest area.

Accident

At 16:03 EDT (20:03 UTC) on 2 August 2005, Air France Flight 358 overshot the end of the runway after landing on Runway 24 Left at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and came to rest in a small ravine just outside the airport perimeter. All 297 passengers and 12 crew members successfully evacuated the aircraft.

The plane had been cleared to land at 16:01 EDT on Runway 24L, which, at in length, is the shortest runway at Pearson Airport. After touchdown, the aircraft did not stop before the end of the runway, but continued for another until it slid into the Etobicoke Creek ravine at a speed of , on the western edge of the airport immediately north of Highway 401.

After the aircraft had stopped, the crew saw fire outside and began evacuation. When the emergency exits were opened, one of the right middle exit slides (R3) deflated after being punctured by debris from the aircraft, while one of the left slides (L2) failed to deploy at all for unknown reasons. The two rear left exits remained closed due to the fire.

Emergency response teams arrived on site within 52 seconds of the accident occurring.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the accident happened two hours after a ground stop was declared at the airport because of severe thunderstorms in the area ("red alert" status, which, for safety reasons, halts all ground activity on the apron and gate area. Aircraft can still land, and take off if still in queue).

Injuries

The table below summarizes the injuries as reported by the TSB. Of the twelve occupants who sustained major injuries, nine suffered the injuries from the impact and three from the evacuation. William Osler Health Centre, Etobicoke General Hospital, Credit Valley Hospital, and Peel Memorial Hospital were additional nearby hospitals that had admitted victims of the crash.

In addition to the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, on-site emergency services were also provided by Peel Regional Paramedic Services, Mark Rosenker, the acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), criticized the concept of passengers taking photographs of disasters, stating, "Your business is to get off the airplane. Your business is to help anybody who needs help."

Passenger oxygen tanks supposedly exploded in the heat of the fire. (Emergency passenger oxygen is provided via a chemical oxygen generator but the aircraft would have been carrying therapeutic oxygen for passengers requiring a constant supply throughout the flight and first aid situations.)
The copy of the "E.R.S. Aircraft Crash Chart" at Pearson International Airport did not include blueprints for the Airbus A340 model of planes at the time of the accident. The blueprints would have contained vital information with regard to search and rescue efforts, and would have provided the location of fuel and pressurized gas tanks so that rescue crews could avoid them.

Other irregularities that were not confirmed nor denied by officials:

12 seconds elapsed between the moment the plane touched down and when pilots applied the thrust reversers, which are used to assist braking
One of the aircraft doors opened on its own during the landing, according to witnesses. Black boxes are unable to reveal this data.

Conclusions

The TSB concluded in its final report that the pilots had missed cues that would have prompted them to review their decision to land, and also that: The settlement resolved the claims of 184 passengers and their families; 45 other passengers had opted out of the suit, while 68 others had already agreed to a settlement with Air France.

J.J. Camp, a Vancouver lawyer representing claimants, stated that passengers seriously harmed with either physical or psychological injuries were eligible for the maximum payout of $175,000. Passengers who were not seriously harmed in the accident would receive the minimum payment of between $5,000 and $10,000. In the statement of claim filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, Air France alleged that the "GTAA failed to provide a safe environment for the conduct of civil air operations." The statement also claims that "The overrun and the consequent injuries to persons and damage to property were caused solely by the negligence of the defendants". Air France says Transport Canada was "negligent" by not implementing the recommendations of a coroner's inquest into the 1978 crash that urged the creation of a 300-metre safety area to give aircraft more room to stop after landing.

Aftermath

An inquiry by the TSB found runway safety zones at the end of runways at some Canadian airports to be below accepted international standards. The report also highlighted that Toronto Pearson's runways meet current Canadian standards, and that runway 24L has a de facto RESA. The TSB also suggested that precautions should be taken by airlines when landing in bad weather. The runway on which the Air France plane landed in August 2005, 24L-06R, is an east–west runway with a length of . This runway did not yet exist at the time of the Air Canada crash in 1978. At that time, the current runway 24R-06L was numbered 24L-06R, and the current runway 23-05 was numbered 24R-06L.

Dramatization

The Canadian television series Mayday (also known as Air Crash Investigation, Air Emergency, Air Disasters or Mayday: Air Disaster) featured the accident in the season 4 opening episode titled "Miracle Escape" ("Desperate Escape" in certain markets), which included interviews with survivors and a dramatization of the accident.

This accident is also featured on The Weather Channel television programs Storm Stories and Why Planes Crash.'

References

Bibliography

<nowiki>[</nowiki>Aussi disponible en français: "Rapport d'enquête aéronautique A05H0002"<nowiki>]</nowiki> Cited in Footnotes section below as "TSB Final Report".

Footnotes

External links

Aviation Safety Network page
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Final Report HTML, PDF (Archive)
Final Report HTML, PDF (Archive)
Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile
"Accident in Toronto."
"Accident to an Airbus A340 in Toronto on 2 August 2005." (Archive)
Transport Safety Board chronology of events
Transport Safety Board photos
CBS News Special Report – Air France Flight crashes in Toronto, Canada. (Video)
Weather satellite imagery with QuickTime animation
Media madness from Toronto: God, lightning and the quasi-crash of Air France flight 358. Salon