From Canadian Press (CP)::
.....Two experts from the manufacturer of the slide and one from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board were on site looking at why the slides didn't work as advertised, Levasseur said.
As well, one runway expert from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration is working with the Canadian team, looking at tire marks on the runway at Pearson International Airport to determine if the Airbus A-340 hydroplaned in the severe rain storm Tuesday.
But at this point in the investigation, the plane doesn't appear to have hydroplaned, Levasseur said.
"If there was hydroplaning, it didn't last very long."
He reasoned that there wasn't enough damage done to the plane's tires to indicate the four-engine jet skidded along because of the water. Hydroplaning, he said, usually causes the water underneath a plane to boil, melting parts of the tire.
Levasseur also said he didn't think a sudden storm-produced microburst - a very small cell of intense downward wind - caused the plane to crash.
"If an aircraft was close to the ground and passed a microburst it could crash," he said. "But I was told that there was no microburst that day."
Only two members of the crew, the captain of the plane and a flight attendant, remain in Toronto.
I guess the tires didn't burn in the ensuing fire.
From AFP
...Air France chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta said the captain was "in excellent physical condition" after visiting him in hospital Thursday, but added the crash may have left some crew and passengers psychologically traumatized.
....Passengers Carla Sbrugnera and her husband Enrico Giacomuzzi Moore suffered the worst injuries in the crash -- she fractured three vertebrae and he fractured one, doctors said.
....The couple were sitting in the first row in first class at the front of the plane when it fell into a gully. Giacomuzzi Moore put his head between his legs and his knee was thrown up and broke his nose, Knipping said.
The couple were still able to exit the aircraft on their own, but Sbrugnera hit other passengers crowded at the bottom of the chute during her escape, he said.
Indeed, it is even more remarkable that passengers and crew were able to safely evacuate the plane so quickly with so many non-functioning exits.
On American television, there were interviews with a civilian who, with a friend, rushed to the plane after the crash. These two individuals managed to hoist themselves into the cabin and apparently did a sweep down both aisles from back to front to be sure everybody was out. If this happened as described, this may suggest a longer time interval before the post-crash fire took hold.
[edited to remove comment on a post by vfenext re: Airbus-Boeing which was subsequently deleted.]