  
| 
| ||||||||||||||||||
Pilot in Canadian crash to be interviewedInvestigators consider removing jet's braking system for analysis
RELATED
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSTORONTO, Ontario (CNN) -- Canadian investigators are set to interview the pilot who was at the controls of the Air France jet that crashed on landing earlier this week at Toronto's airport, the head of the crash inquiry team said Thursday. Air France has said the plane's first officer reported that he touched down as normal Tuesday despite a raging storm but then he could not keep the Airbus 340 on the runway at Lester B. Pearson International Airport. Real Levasseur, chief investigator for the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, said the mechanics of the plane as well as the weather would be looked at as possible factors in the crash. "The causes of an accident are always multiple," he said. All 297 passengers and 12 crew members escaped the plane without serious injury after it overshot the runway, plunged into a gully and burst into flames on arriving from Paris, France. Levasseur said that the "initial landing appeared very normal." As well as talking to the pilot Thursday, investigators would continue to examine the jet's flight and data recorders -- the so-called "black boxes" -- at a lab in Ottawa, Levasseur said. He said investigators were considering removing the plane's steering and braking systems to determine whether they were functioning as they should have been when the crash happened. In addition to the Canadian board, teams from France, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, plane manufacturer Airbus and Air France also are investigating. Levasseur's team already has determined that at least three of four thrust reversers were working normally on landing. Levasseur said that it was certain that three of the reversers had been deployed, as is normal, to slow the plane on touchdown. The plane's fourth thrust reverser was damaged, he said, so that investigators were not immediately certain it had been deployed. But Levasseur said thrust reversers were "not the major factor" in stopping an aircraft -- that was down to the braking system, he said. He said Air France Flight 358 was traveling at about 95 mph (150 kph) when it left the runway and plunged into a ravine 220 yards (200 meters) away. He explained the jet normally would have landed at about 160 mph (257 kph), considering the kind of fuel load it would have been carrying after a transatlantic flight. At the time of the crash at 4:03 p.m. ET Tuesday, the Toronto airport had been under a lightning alert for more than three hours. The red alert restricts activities on the ground, but pilots still make decisions on landing, airport officials said. The co-pilot in charge of the landing -- whom Air France described as "very experienced" -- said there was a big storm with sleet and high wind at the time. Passengers have described how chaos broke out as the plane crashed after not seeming to slow down at all. Rescue crews arrived 52 seconds after the plane crashed -- by which time officials said a majority of passengers already had escaped. Everyone was evacuated within about two minutes. 
|
| ||||||||||||||||||
| © 2007 Cable News Network. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map. |
 |
|
External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pay service with live and archived video. 
