Crash jet 'too far down runway'

All 309 passengers and crew aboard Flight 358 survived the crash

Investigators looking into the Air France jet crash earlier this week are checking reports it may have landed too far down the runway at Toronto airport.

"We do have some information that the aircraft did land long," chief investigator Real Levasseur said.

He added it was too soon to say if this caused the accident.

The Airbus A340 crashed in bad weather on Tuesday, but all of its 309 passengers and crew escaped. Some 43 people were injured.

Quoting data from the ground radar and witnesses, the Globe and Mail newspaper said Flight 358 was "nearly halfway down the 2,800-metre (9,000ft) runway 24L before it touched down".

Click here to see graphic of what happened

Asked to comment on the report, Mr Levasseur said: "There are quite a few witnesses that did state that they observed the aircraft landing halfway down the runway.

"The information that I have is that the aircraft landed longer than normally or longer than usual for this type of aircraft.

"If it indeed landed where (witnesses) suggest it did, we'll have to look at all the factors and find out if the aircraft could have been stopped before the end.

"It depends on the conditions of the systems and the weather and the runway conditions and how much water there was there."

An Air France spokesman in Paris declined to comment, saying the carrier would wait for the result of a full investigation before publicly discussing the possible cause of the crash, the Associated Press news agency reports.

A runway's landing zone varies but is generally considered to be from about 275 metres to 450 metres from the threshold, the Globe and Mail says.

Stormy landing

The plane from Paris landed in a storm at 1603 local time (2003 GMT) on Tuesday.

After touching down on the runway, it lurched across the wet tarmac before skidding towards the airport perimeter.

The plane overshot the runway by about 200m (660ft) and came to rest with its tail pointing in the air in a ravine next to Canada's busiest motorway, Highway 401.

Moments after the last survivor clambered away from the jet, the fuselage was engulfed in smoke and flames.

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