4 Exits Not Used In Toronto Crash

(AP)  Investigators trying to determine why an Air France jet skid off a Toronto runway revealed Saturday that only four of the aircraft's eight doors and emergency exits were used to escape the burning jetliner.

Real Levasseur of Canada's Transportation Safety Board told reporters two of the slides used by the 309 passengers and crew to madly disembark after the crash last Tuesday also didn't work properly, even though they are supposed to automatically unfold when the emergency doors are opened.

The discovery confirms comments by many passengers and witnesses who said some of the slides and emergency exists were not functioning. Some aviation experts have surmised that the impact of the Airbus A340, which slammed into a ravine, might have damaged the exit doors and chutes.

Levasseur said two experts from the U.S. manufacturer of the chutes, Goodrich Corp., and one from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board were on site looking at why these slides and doors didn't work properly.

Air France Flight 358 landed at Lester B. Pearson International Airport amid heavy thunderstorms last Tuesday, skidding off the east-west runway some 200 yards and then slamming into a ravine.

Remarkably, none of the 309 passengers and crew members died, though at least 43 people were injured and several remained hospitalized Saturday.

Veronique Brachet, an Air France spokeswoman, said the pilot was still in a Toronto hospital with compressed vertebrae.

Meanwhile, a passenger has filed a class-action lawsuit against Air France, Toronto airport authorities and a Canadian private air navigation service, accusing them of negligence in the accident, the Toronto Star reported. The suit, filed Friday in Ontario Superior Court, asks for US$62 million. An Air France spokesman in Paris said the company has no comment on the suit.

The plane's flight data and voice recorders were found intact and investigators said they should have details within days to help them solve the reasons behind the late afternoon crash. There have been questions about whether the 9,000-foot runway is long enough and whether it's safe to have the ravine at the end of the runway.

Lucie Vignola, a spokeswoman for the federal transportation ministry Transport Canada, said a plan to soon require clear, nearly flat runway extensions is not a result of Tuesday's accident.

"The timing is interesting, I guess, but we've been looking at this for a few months — looking to see whether or not we needed to do this," Vignola said.

She said Transport Canada decided to go ahead with the plan after it became clear that international standards are shifting to require additional room at the end of runways. The department has not determined how long the safety areas would be, Vignola said.

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