One report spoke of the pilot and some passengers being taken to hospital. Agency reports from Canada later said that all the passengers had survived.

A Toronto radio reporter claimed passengers were seen climbing from the plane's wreckage.

Black smoke billowed from the wreckage as the aircraft, believed to be an Airbus A340, burned.

A row of emergency vehicles lined up behind the wreck, and a fire truck sprayed the flames with water. The operation was broadcast live on television in Canada and the United States.

The flaming ruin was next to the four-lane Highway 401, Canada’s busiest highway, and some cars and trucks stopped on the roadway after the crash.

Police said the plane was an Air France passenger jet that was trying to land when it ran into trouble. There was a storm - with lightning, strong wind gusts and even hail - in the area at the time.

Police Sgt. Glyn Griffiths said it was not know if any passengers had been taken from the plane.

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.

“They made an approach in weather that was worse than what they anticipated,” John Wiley, a retired Airbus pilot in Toronto, told CNN.

The last major jumbo jet crash in North America was on Nov. 12, 2001, when American Airlines Flight 587 lost part of its tail and plummeted into a New York City neighborhood, killing 265 people.

Safety investigators concluded that the crash was caused by the pilot moving the rudder too aggressively.

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