Air France Plane Hit By Lightning Before Crash: Passengers

AEROSPACE

A television grab from Sky News shows the crash site where an Air France passenger jet skidded off the end of the runway 02 August 2005 and burst into flames after landing in a thunder storm at Toronto's Pearson International Airport according to media reports. There were up to 200 passengers on the jet on the Paris-Toronto flight, according to Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and other media. Witnesses said the plane was cut in two and at least two fireballs were seen coming from the debris after the crash. AFP PHOTO SKY NEWS

Toronto (AFP) Aug 02, 2005
The Air France jet that crashed at Toronto's internatioanl airport on Tuesday was probably hit by lightning just before it landed, passengers said.

Passengers who survived the crash said the power on the A-340 jet went off about one minute before it landed.

"I saw lightning," passenger Roel Bramar told Canada's CTV television. "Maybe the plane had already been hit by lightning," he added.

"The reason I'm mentioning that is because just as we landed, the lights turned off. And that's unusual. So I'm sure that the bad weather was responsible," said Bramar.

Another passenger, Olivier Dubois, also said he thought the jet was hit during its landing.

"One minute before we crashed there was no more light," he said.

The plane's pilot seemed unable to stop the plane, which pitched into a ravine at the end of the runway and burst into flame, Bramar said.

"It seemed that the captain wasn't able to apply sufficient braking power," he said. "There was a real roller coaster going on."

"I guess in the end it turned out to be that he overshot the (runway)... we came to the end of the (runway) and went into the ravine. Plane came to an abrupt stop and that's putting it mildly."

He was the second person off the plane, Bramar said.

"Really what I did was run like crazy. There was quite a bit of fire on the ground," he said.

There were 297 passengers and 12 crew on the Air France jet, which was arriving from Paris, officials said.

No deaths were reported in the crash, according to Air France.

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AEROSPACE

Northrop Grumman to Help NASA Define Requirements for Quiet Sonic Boom Research Aircraft

El Segundo CA (SPX) Jul 14, 2005
A Northrop Grumman-led team has been selected by NASA to help define requirements for a new aircraft that would be used to test theories about how to reduce the disruptive, window-rattling effects of an aircraft's sonic boom.

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