"a miracle crash" at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport where it was sliding into a ravine and breaking into pieces while landing in a severe thunderstorm.
Rescue workers and eyewitnesses watched with amazement when everyone aboard the Air France Flight 358 from Paris managed to jump to safety before the Airbus A340 burst into flames late Tuesday, August 2.
Fourteen people suffered non life threatening injuries in the 4:03 p.m. crash landing of Air France Flight 358 from Paris, the first time an Airbus A340 had crashed in its 13 years of commercial service, aviation officials said.
At least seven of them were treated in the nearby William Osler Health Centre – Etobicoke Hospital, BosNewsLife monitored. That hospital "is currently receiving passengers from the earlier plane accident at Pearson International Airport. We can confirm that 7 passengers are being treated at Etobicoke’s Emergency Department at the present time," it said in a statement .
But "there are no known fatalities" among the 297 people and 12 crew members who were on board, an airport spokesman said. About 14 people suffered minor injuries, Steve Shaw, chairman of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, told reporters..
WOODED AREA
It was unclear how many people had prayed for a "miracle", the word used by several news media to describe the outcome of the crash. The accident took place in a wooded area next to one of Canada’s busiest highways, and some survivors reportedly said that passengers had scrambled up to the road to catch rides with passing cars.
"The plane touched ground and we felt it was going off road and hitting a ravine and that’s when we thought that was really the end of it," said Olivier Dubois, a passenger who was sitting in the rear of the A340 Airbus. "People were screaming and … jumping as fast as possible and running everywhere, because our biggest fear is that it would blow up," Dubois told Canada’s CTV News.
"We didn’t know at all what was happening. Really, we think the crew was as surprised as we were that we had to make an emergency landing. We had absolutely no insight or hint that the landing would be difficult," he added, noting there was some general concern due to the pelting rain at the time.
DIFFICULT WEATHER
"We just knew it would be a bit hard because of the weather." Ahmed Alatava, another passenger, told CTV News there had been short-lived applause and sigh of relief when the plane initially landed.
"When he come to land in the airport, everybody is clapping to the captain…. but after that we felt bump, bump, bump … then through the window I saw fire." The crew reportedly soon opened an emergency exit and he joined others leaping out to safety.
Corey Marks who was in a car on the nearby busy highway when he saw the plane land, was surprised that everyone survived. More than an hour after the crash, he said he could still feel the heat of the flames, the Cable News Network (CNN) reported.
He described seeing two fireballs burst from the jet as it, "went straight into the valley and cracked in half". But Marks said the emergency services were on the scene within less than a minute to pick up the hundreds of survivors. An investigation was expected to begin shortly. (With Stefan J. Bos, reports from Toronto and BosNewsLife Research).
