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In less than 2 minutes, a textbook evacuation

TORONTO - The flight from Paris had been a breeze for the students, businessmen and vacationers, until Air France Flight 358 started its final descent - and it suddenly became clear a furious thunderstorm was enveloping the packed Airbus A340.

As crew members made landing announcements, passengers like Caroline Diezyn, Olivier Dubois and Ahmed Alawata made sure their seat belts were tight against the turbulence. They stared out the windows but saw only blackness in the afternoon sky.

For the 297 passengers and 12 crew members, a harrowing landing in Toronto on Tuesday would end in a textbook evacuation. Most were out in just 52 chilling seconds, and no one was killed. Some credited pilots who fought the raging weather surrounding Pearson International Airport, which was on "red alert" status because of the electrical storm.

In the midst of Flight 358's first approach to an east-west runway, the plane abruptly pulled up. A flight attendant announced that bad weather forced the aborted landing.

When it descended again, lightning illuminated the sky.

In the cockpit, pilots received directions from air traffic control. The plane closed on the runway.

Returning from a wedding in France, Veronica Laudes, 36, looked out the left window.

"What is that?" she said, spotting "a little line of smoke."

It was then - about 4 p.m., as the jetliner neared touchdown - that the lights in the cabin went out. "It was all black in the plane," Dubois said.

Seconds later, as the wheels touched down, passengers applauded in relief. But the landing was hard, and in an instant, screams replaced the cheers.

The plane was not slowing.

"We just kept going so fast," said Diezyn, 18, returning home after a monthlong vacation in France. "We bumped once, and then we kept bumping. The lights went off and the oxygen masks came down."

Skidding 200 yards off the runway, the jetliner came to rest in a ravine. Flames were seen on the left side and tail of the plane.

Bags came down from the overhead bins, and the plane was coming apart, said South African student Eddie Ho, 19.

The flight crew responded immediately, said Dominique Pajot, 54, a businessman from Paris, who was sitting in first class. "They were very quick to get up and open the doors and help people and calm them."

But fire in the rear of the plane caused alarm, and passengers charged for the exits.

"People were tripping over each other, climbing over the seats to get to the exit," Ho said.

At a front door where Ho said he was directed to go, there was no chute to slide down and the drop was about 12 feet. He ran to a second door. It had a damaged chute, but he took it.

"I jumped and fell onto some people," Ho said. "Some people broke their arms or legs."

"Stewardesses started pushing everyone out," said Diezyn, who said she cut her legs on the tall, sharp grass in the wet field where they landed.

Within 52 seconds, three-quarters of those on board were out of the plane. The evacuation of everyone - more than 300 people - took less than two minutes, with a co-pilot the last to leave the flaming wreckage.

Pajot said the pilot was with them and appeared to be injured.

On Highway 401, Canada's busiest, which runs parallel to the ravine where the plane ended up, drivers saw what seemed like zombies in a horror movie.

"What's going on?" Yvonne Boland said she thought as she stopped to help. "Four people, eight people, 12 people streaming up."

Diezyn said the flight was overbooked and the airline offered vouchers for people to stay another night in Paris.

But she turned them down, because she knew her mother expected her home on Tuesday.

"That was one of the first things I thought," she said as she left the airport. "I should have stayed in Paris."

[Last modified August 4, 2005, 01:06:05]