Toronto Airbus Accident Early Follow-Up

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Combine landing 4,000 feet long on a wet runway with a tailwind and the result is what happened in Toronto last Tuesday, according to investigators. Canadian Transportation Safety Board investigators have practically ruled out a lightning strike and hydroplaning as contributing factors in the accident, which resulted in only minor injuries to a few of the 309 on board the Air France jet. Flight 583 ran off a runway in heavy rain at Pearson International Airport and caught fire in a ravine. Lead investigator Real Levasseur said the 5,000 feet of remaining runway would, under normal circumstances, been enough to bring the A340 to a stop. “Under [Tuesday’s] conditions, I am pretty convinced that there was no way the aircraft was going to be able to stop before the end,” Levasseur told a news conference. Meanwhile, the investigation is now focused on why two emergency slides failed to deploy from aircraft exits. Earlier reports said four of eight emergency exits failed to open but Levasseur told reporters that the cabin crew chose not to use two exits because of fire. However, when they opened two of the remaining six exits, the emergency slides that are supposed to automatically deploy failed to do so. Representatives of the slides’ manufacturer are now taking part in the investigation. Investigators are getting good data from both the flight data and voice recorders and investigators hope to interview the plane’s captain soon.

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