h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This week an air France jet skidded off the end of a runway at Toronto's Pearson airport and burst into flames. Remarkably, the flight crew were able to get everyone off the plane safely. The airport's emergency people were on the scene and squirting foam on the wreckage in 52 seconds. Wow!

Hi, JTG,

A friend of mine in Toronto (Port Perry) filled me in on the details but it was headline news in the UK for a couple of days. I was just about to go to bed and switch the TV off, when live pictures came on and it was very strange to be watching what was happening LIVE! It was our bed time your rush hour.

If ever there was a miracle that was it. All escaped alive, and as one Canadian on the radio said, they weren't even badly hurt enough to be called "walking wounded"!

Haven't seen any news more recently. and haven't had time to check the web for updates. Have they any idea yet what exactly happened?

Shortly before that here in the UK the south side of Birmingham got hit by a tornado! It lasted about three minutes, but the devastation has to be seen to be believed. Apparently we get about 33-35 per year here, but they rarely do more than make a bit of a mess and a swirl in the sky.

Any news I would appreciate it. Things are so hectic here I can't concentrate. See my "Heart is still thumping" thread for more info. if you are interested.



Websailor

I've just read your badger thread. Wow! Lucky you!

I've not heard anything more about the cause of the Air France crash in Toronto. There is an investigation underway of course. There has been speculation that a tail wind gave the jet an unexpected shove and that the sheer volume of water that was hitting the runway when it tried to touch down caused it to hydroplane. I could see and hear the thunderstorm from where I work, about 20 miles west of Toronto, and there was obviously quite a deluge in the area.

I did hear that someone is suing Air France, the airport people, the pilot (I think) and anyone else who had anything to do with the decision to land during the storm. That seems a bit sad to me. You'd think the joy of having escaped unscathed would be enough of a gift; it just seems greedy, somehow, looking for cash as well. I'm sure that everyone involved takes their responsibilities very, very seriously and any lessons to be learned from the accident certainly will be. Looking for someone to blame just seems peevish and ungrateful to me.

It is funny how TV shrinks the world, isn't it? Strangely, most of the news coverage I saw was on BBC World. The experts that the local news people were digging up weren't very interesting, so I tuned into the BBC.

JTG