Canadian air safety investigators say there was no way the pilot could have stopped an Air France jet before it skidded off the runway last week. "I am pretty convinced that there was no way the aircraft was going to be able to stop before the end, with the water on the runway and the (poor) braking action," said lead investigator Réal Levasseur after a preliminary look at analysis of information from the plane's "black boxes." Levasseur said Sunday the Airbus A-340 landed about 1,300 yards into the 3,000-yard runway at Toronto's Pearson International Airport Tuesday before it overshot and slammed into a wooded ravine. All 309 people aboard -- passengers and crew -- escaped before the plane burst into flames. Levasseur said the plane would have been able to stop under dry conditions, but the runway was wet from a storm, making it much harder for the brakes to get a grip. Investigators are also trying to determine why some of the emergency exits failed to deploy in the crash, forcing passengers to scramble to other exits or jump from the plane. All chutes are supposed to deploy automatically as soon as an emergency door is opened. Levasseur said investigators are trying to determine whether the impact from a rough landing was the cause, or if there was previous damage to the plane. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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