TORONTO, Aug 9: The Air France Airbus jet which crash landed at Toronto airport last week was too high when it approached the runway before overshooting, skidding off into a ravine and bursting into flames, a senior investigator said on Monday.

“We know that the height over the beginning of the runway, as the aircraft went over, is somewhere between 50 and 100 feet (15 and 30 meters), likely a little bit higher than 50, perhaps as high as 100,” said Canadian Transportation Safety Board lead investigator Rene Levasseur.

“Normal altitude is about 50 feet (15 metres),” he said, so the co-pilot who was in control of the aircraft was flying “a bit high” on approach. On Sunday, investigators said Air France Flight 358 touched down too far along the rain-soaked runway to stop before overshooting and bursting into flames in a ravine.

The plane touched down about 1,200 metres from the beginning of the runway, close to the midway point, leaving the co-pilot, who was in control of the jet, only 1,500 metres to bring the massive Airbus A340 to a halt.

Under normal conditions, this type or size of aircraft could have stopped in time, Levasseur said. It was traveling “fairly close” to the correct landing speed — at 148 knots instead of the typical 140 knots — pushed along by a slight tailwind, he said.

But, because the runway was slick from rain, the brakes were less effective and it took longer to decelerate. —AFP