I know this isn't the Canadian board.

TORONTO - "A passenger jetliner caught fire Tuesday after skidding off a runway at Pearson airport in Toronto. Black smoke billowed from the wreckage as the aircraft burned...

Police said the plane was an Air France passenger jet that was trying to land when it ran into trouble"

An Air France ticket agent told Reuters that the burning plane is an A340 airbus that flew into Toronto from Paris.


Live television pictures showed flames and smoke billowing from the aircraft in a tree-filled area near the airport.

CTV Toronto's Jim Junkin reports that 200 people are thought to have been on board.

CTV.ca News Staff

On CNN right now. The plane was coming from Paris. So awful.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/natio...ane050802.html

More "uplifting" news for us travellers.

The pictures on CNN look terrible. They're saying it was landing in a thunderstorm.

Oh no! Large-jet commercial aviation in the US and Europe has been so fatality-free in the past few years that this is a shock.

Air France flight 358.

"Leah Walker, a radio reporter in Toronto, said she saw a third of the plane fall and that the rest became a fireball. "This plane attempted to land in some very fierce weather we had today," she said."

I meant to add Canada to the list above, of course.

Apparently there are numerous survivors, including both pilots. Let's hope for the best.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml

"CBS News reports there were no known fatalities and 241 passengers aboard were evacuated."

If true, this sounds miraculous, given the descriptions.

It is Flight 358, an Airbus 340. ETA was 3:35pm....how horrible....prayers to all of them.

CNN was interviewing a man that was on the highway when it happened. He watches planes land quite often and he said that it looked like a "normal" landing in the sense that the plane touched down on the runway where all the big planes do. He said he heard the engines power up..like when they reverse them and then the plane never stopped..just went right off the end of the runway into the ravine, broke in half and in a VERY sort time, burst into flames. Lots of rain at the time so wonder if it just hydroplaned on the runway. Supposed to be a news conference pretty soon...like in 15 or 20 minutes.

There are bad thunderstorms in Toronto right now. A KLM 747 just landed here in Syracuse becasue they wanted to avoid the bad weather, and now the Air France accident.

I'm saying prayers for all - let's hope the reports are true that there are no fatalities.

AM 680, an all-news station, reported live from the scene that there were two explosions on the plane. The station quoted a police official on the nearby freeway as saying two groups of passengers had been evacuated from the jet.

AM 680 also said some passengers could be seen climbing from the plane and that emergency workers said most of 252 people on board were safe.

The report could not immediately be confirmed.

washingtonpost

Watching a live feed...Would say that it looks like there must be fatalities unfortunately. Overshot runway, report from passenger that came in "high", landed hard...and that several people were injured (broken legs) on impact and would have had a hard time exiting. Still ots of smoke (2 hrs after crash)Plane landed in Montreal before continuing on to Toronto. Airport had been code red (closed for takeoffs) for last 2 hours...before crash.

CNN is reporting that all passengers and crew got off alive, which is great news.

I am watching CNN right now and they are saying there are no known fatalities. I hope and pray this is true.

As some of you know, I was in a jet fire last year. Our plane caught fire on take-off and smoke filled the cabin. By the grace of God, everyone survived and escaped serious injury. Unlike this accident the fire on my plane was contained soon after we landed. But still, the whole experience was terrifying.

Today, just as I was leaving my office I saw that headline about this accident. I really thought from the headline that nobody survived, and this affected me deeply. I could barely drive home through the tears and nausea I felt. When I got home I immediately turned on the TV. When they said there were no fatalities, and I screamed out loud with joy. Still, my thoughts and prayers are with those who were on this plane. This is not something they will soon forget.

Yup, news services confirmed no fatalities...when you see the video, you will call this a miracle...bravo for aircraft staff and rescue services.

On CNN, in the red breaking news section: all passengers survive. I hope it's true, not just some hearsay like it happens with the news.