Air France 747 slides off Montreal runway; no injuries

An Air France jumbo jet carrying more than 500 passengers and crew slid off a Montreal runway while landing Tuesday night, but there were no injuries, an airport spokeswoman said.

The Boeing 747 arriving at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport from Paris at about 6 p.m. ET came to a stop with its nose wheel in the grass by the tarmac, Stephanie Lepage said.

"It slid off the runway, but it's a minor situation and the crew members reported that there were no injured passengers," Lepage told CBC News. "We transported all the passengers through the terminal with the passenger transporter vehicle."

There was no apparent damage to the aircraft, most of which sat on its landing gear on the runway. Only the nose landing wheels were off the runway.

Air France released a statement Tuesday night saying it had opened an investigation and is co-operating with local authorities to determine the cause of the incident.

Federal Transportation Safety Board spokesman Julie Leroux said an investigation is underway, but she gave no other details.

An Air France plane skidded off a runway at Toronto's Pearson airport in 2005 and burst into flames. All 297 passengers and 12 crew members survived, suffering only minor injuries after the plane skidded into a ravine.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/montreal/story/2008/08/27/air-france.html

Fonte: Flight Safety Information 29/08/2008.