TORONTO, Aug 5: The Air France plane crashed in Toronto this week landed further down the runway than is normal for a jet of its size, and that’s one of many factors still being probed, investigators said on Friday. But the lead investigator said lightning did not appear to be a factor behind the fiery, but non-fatal, crash of the Airbus A340.

All 309 people aboard survived after the plane tore off the end of the runway at 160 km/h during a severe thunderstorm, plunged into a ravine and burned to a charred and twisted hulk.

“The information that I have is that the aircraft landed longer than normal or longer than usual for this type of aircraft,” Real Levasseur of Canada’s Transportation Safety Board told reporters.

“How long exactly, or how far more than usual is what we are trying to determine right now. If it turns out that it is significant enough, then we will certainly look at all the factors that follow.”

Witnesses to Tuesday’s crash said the plane landed halfway down the runway at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, and many speculated that it had been hit by lighting as it neared the ground. But Levasseur said that was not likely.

“There was no evidence of a lightening strike on any part of the aircraft that does not have fire damage,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean there wasn’t a lightening strike but we do not have any evidence of that at this time.”

Levasseur said all thrust reversers, used to brake a plane on landing, were working as the plane touched down.

Equipment retrieved from the cockpit will contain data that should help shed light on what the plane was doing at the time of landing, he added.

“We will be putting all the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together to determine exactly what happened,” said Levasseur, who is leading a team of 35 from Canada and 17 from elsewhere, including the US National Transportation Board.—Reuters