A near-miss

From the Toronto National Post of Wednesday August 3rd 2005:

TORONTO
An Air France passenger jet slid off the end of a runway and crashed into a wooded gully after a hard landing at Toronto's international airport yesterday, but all 309 people on board are
believed to have scrambled to safety as the airliner burst into flames.

Flight AF358, carrying 297 passengers and 12 crew on a direct flight from Paris, landed just after 4 p.m. yesterday in the midst of a driving thunderstorm and repeated lightning strikes in the area. The Airbus A340 overran the 2,700-metre runway by about 200 metres, barrelling down a wooded incline before abruptly coming to rest near a creek bed.

Officials said the plane was evacuated immediately, but passengers said flames that sent thick black smoke billowing over Canada's busiest highway broke out before everyone was off the airliner.

Two retired Canadians, Ronald Willson and Marlee Chana living in St Malo, intend taking the same flight next week. Yoda, their dog would have been crushed in the cargo hold.