All 309 passengers and crew survived after an Air France Airbus burst into flames when it overshot the runway and crashed into a gully at Toronto's Pearson International Airport in a lightning storm on Tuesday.

?As far as we know at this stage the passengers were able to flee the aircraft before the fire broke out?, Steve Shaw of the Greater Toronto Airport Authority told a news conference. ?As far as we know there have been no fatalities and no serious injuries, although some 24 passengers have been taken to hospital with minor injuries.? Smoke and flames billowed from the plane, which landed in a gully where there was a fatal aviation accident 27 years ago. The smell of smoke drifted into terminal buildings.

Airport officials said there had been only minor injuries as passengers evacuated the jet, an Airbus A340. The plane skidded 200 yards past the runway as it came in to land.

All flights to or from the airport, Canada's largest and busiest, were canceled or diverted to other cities. ?The plane came to a rough stop, and that's putting it mildly?, passenger Roel Bramar told Canada's CBC Television. ?I was in the very back of the plane and could see there was fire... People were just running like crazy, just in case there was an explosion, which I guess there wasn't. So I guess things ended up okay, but I can't tell for sure.?

?Red alert?

Shaw said Toronto airport was under a ?red alert? as the plane came into land -- which means there is a danger of lightning and thunder. Ground activity stops, and planes must not be marshaled or unloaded. But he declined to speculate about whether the plane might have been struck by lighting. ?The Transportation Safety Board will conduct a full investigation?, he said. Air France said the plane, AF358 from Paris to Toronto, had 297 passengers and 12 crew members aboard.

The A340-300 has a range of more than 7,000 miles (11,000 km), which makes it popular with more than two dozen carriers for long-haul flights. The ill-fated aircraft was at its seating capacity of 300 passengers.

Investigators will zero in on the flight data and cockpit voice recorders for information on crew and on the aircraft's performance. Debbi Wilkes, who was driving on a highway alongside the airport, said it was ?pouring rain? and ?pelting with hail? as the plane came down. ?We saw a bolt of lightning come down and hit something?, she said.

The plane was lying off the end of a runway close to a main traffic artery. Some passengers ran to the highway and were taken to hospital from there. Afternoon rush hour traffic quickly clogged up along the highway, Canada's busiest, as vehicles passed only a few yards from the crash site. An Air Canada jet crashed into the same creek in 1978 in the last fatal accident at Toronto airport. That plane had 107 people aboard. Two died.

?It was about 4 o'clock. It was getting really dark. All of a sudden lightning was happening. A lot of rain was coming down?, witness Corey Marx, who was standing by the highway watching planes land at the airport, told CNN. ?It came in on the runway, everything looked good. Sounded good. Hit the runway nice and all of a sudden we heard its engines backing up.? Marx said rescue workers got to the plane within about 40 or 50 seconds.

Janet GUTTSMAN

ROLLER COASTER RIDE

Darkness, panic and safety after plane crash

■ ?It was a hell of a roller coaster going into the ravine. The people around me, everyone was running like crazy just in case there was an explosion,? crash survivor Roel Bramar told CBC Television. ?I was at the very back of the plane and saw that there was fire outside. I was the second person off the plane. Down the chute.? All 309 passengers and crew survived the crash, abandoning the aircraft down emergency escape chutes and racing toward safety as the aircraft began to burn. Officials said about 24 people had suffered minor injuries.

?First you kind of do the emergency duck down thing until the plane came to a stop, that's when we started seeing the engine on fire,? said passenger John Abedrabbo. Olivier Dubos, who was sitting at the back of the plane, told CTV television that the plane appeared to land "extremely fast? after a 20 minute delay caused by storm conditions at the airport. Then there was darkness, as the plane careened out of control and crashed into a ravine. ?Just before we landed the plane was going extremely fast but we thought that was because of the rain or heavy winds or whatever,? he said. ?Then there was no more light in the plane. It was really scary. Very, very scary. ?And then we went off the runway, we went into the ravine... The plane stopped. We opened the emergency doors and basically there were lots of flames around. We just tried to escape, sliding from the plane.?

Dazed survivors made their way to 401 highway, a multilane road that adjoins Toronto's Pearson International Airport, flagging down commuters who had slowed down as flames and thick black smoke billowed from the wrecked plane. Rayed Hantach said his brother Mohammed had phoned from the side of the road to tell him he was safe, after a woman stopped to help and offered her cell phone.? When it finally stopped some of the guys jumped off the plane. My brother was one of them and he made his way to the 401,? Rayed Hantach said, as he waited at the airport. ?Some Good Samaritan drivers pulled over. A lady saw him, pulled over and he used her cell phone to call me. I'm relieved that he's safe and on the ground, thank God.? Rescued passengers were taken to an airport hotel, and hustled away from the throngs of TV cameras and journalists. Commuter Debbi Wilkes was driving through the storm when she saw a bolt of lighting. ?We did not know it was a plane at that time.?