MORE than 300 passengers and crew on board an Air France passenger jet appeared to have had a lucky escape last night when their aircraft burst into flames after it landed in a violent thunderstorm at Pearson International Airport in Toronto.

According to witnesses the Air France Airbus 340, which had flown from Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, touched down amid lightning strikes and driving rain, before hurtling off the runway and into a deep wooded ravine, where it split in two and burst into flames.

A Toronto airport authority official said that the jet overran the runway by 200m. “There are no known fatalities,” he said of the 297 passengers and 12 crew who all managed to get out before the the plane was engulfed by the fire.

Roel Bramar, a passenger on the aircraft, said he believed that Air France Flight 358 could have been struck by lightning as it landed just after 4pm. “I saw lightning. Just as we landed, the lights turned off, which is unusual,” he added.

Sergeant Glyn Griffiths, of the Toronto police, said that the pilot had been taken to hospital. There were early reports of 14 minor injuries.

The flaming wreckage sat in a wooded area next to Highway 401, Canada’s busiest motorway. A section of the aircraft’s wing could be seen jutting from the trees.

Mr Bramar added: “The captain was not able to apply sufficient braking power. Then all of a sudden everything went up in the air.

“There was a real rollercoaster going on. We overshot the runway, and went into a ravine. The plane came to an abrupt stop.

“I was at the back of the plane, I could see fire. I was the second person off the plane, down the chute.”

Corey Marks, a plane spotter who was watching the airliner come in to land, said: “It was getting ready to land, then all of a sudden lightning was happening, rain, and it was suddenly incredibly dark.

“He hit the runway nice, and we heard the engines backing up. But he just kept on going, and went straight into this valley at the end of the runway and cracked totally in half.

“We were about to run over, but it burst into such flames that we couldn’t.”

As Mr Marks spoke to CNN, an hour after the crash, huge fireballs could still be seen bursting from the fuselage.

Oliver Dubos, another survivor, said: “There were a lot of flames. We were running really fast out of the plane.”

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Zardari still has to tackle tough questions
• Material evidence 'debunks' Turin Shroud
• BBC criticised over Uganda gay execution poll