Air France A340 overruns Toronto runway during storm, sparking criticism over lack of runway-end safety areas
Investigators are trying to establish why an Air France Airbus A340 overran the runway while landing in bad weather at Toronto Pearson airport last week. Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSBC) lead investigator Real Levasseur said last week there was no evidence of a technical fault.
The initial investigation has been hampered by the need to send the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) to France for downloading, which is expected to be completed early this week, as the TSBC does not have the equipment to download data from the type of recorders involved.
The 2 August non-fatal accident involved a six-year-old A340-300 (F-GLZQ), on flight AF358 from Paris with 297 passengers and 12 crew. During its attempt to land on the 2,750m (9,000ft)-long runway 24L in thunderstorms and heavy rain, the aircraft overran and came to rest in a ravine, where it caught fire and was burnt out. All on board escaped, although about 40 suffered minor injuries. Investigators say that many passengers evacuated with their carry-on baggage.
The TSBC says that during the instrument landing-system approach the crew did not report any problems. It says all communications were normal and air traffic control instructions were correctly read back by the pilots.
The A340 went off the far endof the runway at about 80kt(150km/h), says lead investigator Real Levasseur. It travelled across 200m of rough ground before coming to rest in the ravine with its fuselage substantially intact. A number of the A340’s eight exits were usable, although the exact number has not been confirmed. A fire began near the trailing edge of the left wing root, but Levasseur says the investigators have yet to establish the ignition source. Investigators say thrust reversers on the three engines so far inspected were deployed correctly.
Although the accident runway is Pearson’s shortest and should have been adequate, the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations has criticised the airport operator for providing an “inadequate” overrun area with no runway-end safety area. It says the runway only has a “60m runway strip” available for an overrun.
The forecasts available to the crew an hour before landing predicted thunderstorms with heavy rain, and the airport had halted all ground operations several times because of lightning. The forecast for the landing time was for thunderstorms with lighter rain, wind 180° at 13kt, 12.8km visibility that would reduce in storms, lowest cloud at 5,500ft, temperature 22°C (71°F) and dew point 19°C.
Levasseur says aquaplaning and windshear will be investigated. The pilots did not ask for a surface wind readout on final approach and the tower did not offer one.
DAVID LEARMOUNT/LONDON
Source: Flight International
