A violent gust or sudden shift of wind, known as wind shear, may have caused an Air France jet to slide off the runway at Toronto airport Tuesday, the Paris-based International Herald Tribune reported yesterday.
According to the newspaper, preliminary reports from a Terminal Doppler Weather Radar near Toronto's Pearson International Airport indicated that a strong wind-shear blast, known as a "microburst," struck on or near the airport just as the Airbus A340-300 aircraft was landing.
However, according to an unnamed official close to the investigation of the accident, "complicated calculations" are still required to determine what effect it had on the plane.
The plane, carrying 297 passengers and a crew of 12, landed in violent thunderstorms and skidded off the end of the runway and into a gully, where it broke apart and burst into flame. No-one died in the accident, but 43 people, including the pilot, were injured.
The International Herald Tribune also reported that the Toronto airport, or any other Canadian airport, is not equipped with the Doppler radar system, or another wind-shear detection system, known as Low-Level Windshear Alert system (LLWAS), which might have led to a warning to stop the Air France plane from landing.
Several sources told the newspaper that Canadian authorities declined to install the systems because they were thought too expensive.
No cause of the crash has yet been determined, although the severe weather is believed to have played a major part in the accident.
An aviation official with knowledge of the investigation told the newspaper that the weather at the airport worsened considerably just as the plane was landing, so that the airport condition was designated as "black," which meant no planes were allowed to land or take off.
The official also said that the plane was apparently hit with strong gusts of wind as it rolled down the runway.
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