Air France crash
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, August 2, 2005
Lots of buzz in the office about this today, so I’m posting some links.
This BBC story focuses on safety procedures in the industry. Key Quote: “Air travel regulations … have been gradually tightened in an effort to reduce the risks to passengers caught up in accidents. Chief among these in the so-called ‘golden rule’: every passenger on board a commercial airliner must be able to clamber off the plane within 90 seconds of an incident, even if half the doors are blocked.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4742669.stm
The Associated Press reports on comments from Air France chief Jean-Cyril Spinetta, who praised the performance of his crew during the evacuation: Key Quote: “The co-pilot said the plane had sufficient fuel and that the runway was long enough, he added, noting that the co-pilot conducted a thorough search of the plane to assure no passengers remained before he evacuated.”
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050803/w080334.html
This story from the Herald-Sun in Melbourne has a lot of comments from passengers and people who saw the crash. It looks like it was pieced together from wire service reports. Key Quote: “Passengers said the Airbus A340 from Paris was hit by lightning just before it landed. ‘Just before touching ground it was all black in the plane, there was no more light, nothing,’ passenger Olivier Dubos said.”
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16145085%255E663,00.html
Dubos also talked to CBS this morning, describing the evacuation. Key Quote: “When the plane stopped … We all, like, as a natural reflex, we got up. And the crew was starting to open the emergency exits. On the left side of the plane, there was too much fire, too many flames, so that we could not open up. But on the right side, at the end of the plane, they did open it. And then I was, like, among the first ones to be at the door, and I was telling the crew, and they were saying to me, ‘So, OK, we go. Let’s go. Jump.’ And we were among the first ones to jump.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/03/earlyshow/main713683.shtml
This CBC News story looks at the performance of the airport’s fire and rescue crew. Key Quote: “Pearson International Airport fire trucks reached the scene of Tuesday’s fiery crash landing just 52 seconds after the Air France plane touched down, the airport’s fire chief said Wednesday.”
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/08/03/rescue-plane050803.html
And this story from The Age in Melbourne, pieced together from wire service reports, looks at possible causes of the crash. Key Quote: “Investigators are likely to focus on why the plane landed in such dismal weather and whether lightning interfered with its brakes.”
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/experts-point-finger-at-weather-windshear/2005/08/03/1122748700013.html
