An Air France A340 landed seemingly OK at Toronto airport in bad weather, but on reversing its engines to slow down, skidded off the runway, went into a gully and broke into two and burst into flames. There were 200 passengers on board. Most of the passengers worked their way out of the aircraft safely but the fate of the reminder remains unknown at this stage.
From the witness’ report, it would appear that something didn’t work out right during the engine reversing. The A340 has 4 engines, 2 on each side. If an engine or two on one side didn’t go into reverse simultaneously with the engines on the other side, the plane would experience what is known as an asymmetric reversing, which would then cause the plane to swing severely to one side, forcing it to leave the runway. The gully did the rest.
Flight No was Air France Flight 358 from Charles de Gaulle International near Paris to Toronto. It landed just 2 hours ago, 6 am Aus EST or 4 am KL time.
UPDATE:
Everyone is OK, with only 43 suffering minor injuries. There's some suggestion lightning struck the plane as it landed.
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