The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has confirmed Air France Flight 358 landed about halfway along the 2.7-kilometre runway at Pearson -- much farther than usual -- on wet pavement and had no chance of stopping in time.

An Air France accident four years ago -- involving an Airbus 340, a rainstorm, wind shear and a "missed" runway -- has raised new questions about the airline's similar, fiery crash-landing in Toronto this month.

The May, 2001, mishap, which resulted in no injuries, involved the same model of plane as overran a runway at Pearson airport and occurred in equivalent weather conditions.

A French workplace safety agency blamed the accident in French Guiana on the pilots' over-reliance on automated systems, and recommended that landing protocols be changed.

It is unclear whether Air France ever implemented the advice, however.

As it conducts its investigation of the Toronto incident, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will undoubtedly look at the earlier event and the report on it, said John Cottreau, a spokesman for the board.

"They will be looking at all incidents of difficulty with this aircraft," he said yesterday.

But one outside expert questioned the French safety report's advice, and Air France spoke out against the release of information that it suggested could interfere with the board's investigation.

"The commission should be left to work without any outside intervention," said a release from the airline.

Landing in a thunderstorm on Aug. 2, Air France Flight 358 sped off the end of its runway at Pearson, careening into a ravine and bursting into flames. All 309 passengers and crew escaped.

The safety board has confirmed the plane landed about halfway along the 2.7-kilometre runway -- much farther than usual -- on wet pavement and had no chance of stopping in time.

Experts have speculated the plane likely encountered some kind of wind shear -- a sudden change in wind speed or direction -- that caused it to lift up off its glide path and land well past the comfort zone.

A U.S. expert who has seen Doppler radar imagery said it appears a microburst -- a sudden downdraft of air -- hit near the runway at about the time Flight 358 landed.

In the 2001 incident, an A340 was landing in Cayenne, French Guiana, during a tropical storm, when it suddenly lost altitude and bumped onto the ground 30 metres short of the runway. It sped over the barrier at the runway threshold, damaging the undercarriage.

A small fire started in the brakes, but there were no injuries.

The pilots had entrusted the plane's power levels to the auto thrust system, which is supposed to automatically set the speed according to the jet's weight and other variables.

When the plane encountered wind gusts first in one direction, then suddenly in the opposite direction, just before landing, the auto thrust system responded by maintaining the pre-planned speed, according to a report from the Comite d'hygiene, de securite et des conditions du travail (CHSCT).

The accident occurred because the auto thrust had reduced the speed too much in the final approach, making it unable to compensate for the wind conditions, said the CHSCT, which investigates workplace accidents.

"The co-pilot in charge of landing was in a state of over-confidence in this automation," said the agency's report. It quoted him as saying later he was not sure if he could fly without the auto thrust on.

The CHSCT said both it and the Airbus manufacturer believe the auto thrust system is not capable of maintaining adequate power levels in all bad weather situations.

The report recommended that such information be passed on to Air France crews. But the report noted that in a 2002 version of the A340 protocol, Air France still recommended that auto thrust be used to manage speed when wind shear is suspected.