Weather a factor in Air France crash
(AP)
Updated: 2005-08-03 22:08

Investigators said Wednesday that a heavy rainstorm accompanied by lightning and strong winds was a factor that caused an Air France jet to skid off a Toronto runway and burst into flames, prompting 309 passengers and crew to slide down escape chutes.

Smoke billows from a passenger jetliner that caught fire Tuesday Aug. 2, 2005 after skidding off a runway in the rain at Pearson airport in Toronto in this image from television.[AP]

The black boxes of Flight 358 from Paris will be retrieved Wednesday, investigators said. The plane skidded off the runway at Pearson International Airport after landing at about 4 p.m. Tuesday in a pounding storm.

Brian Lackey, vice president of operations for the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, said the Airbus A340 had enough fuel to divert to Montreal or another airport where the weather was better, but "that's the pilot's decision."

"It was definitely an extreme storm, something we haven't seen in a long time," Lackey said. "We're very, very grateful that the situation turned out as well as it did."

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