'Miracle' Azores landing probed

An Air Transat plane sits on the tarmac of Lajes airport after an emergency landing

LAJES, Azores Islands -- Investigators were trying to figure out why an airliner with more than 300 aboard was forced to make an emergency landing without power.

The "miracle" landing by the charter jet bound from Toronto to Lisbon left 50 passengers injured. Passengers were screaming as the Air Transat plane hit the runway, bursting its tyres and spilling fuel.

The plane had glided for 18 minutes after losing engine power on Friday.

"Only the pilot's skill prevented a tragedy," Alfredo Cruz, a commander at Lajes Field, a U.S. Air Force base on the island, told the Portuguese news agency Lusa, according to The Associated Press.

Passengers put on life vests and were expecting the plane to ditch in the ocean as it descended rapidly and the pilot struggled for control.

Aviation officials speculated that the Airbus A330 may have begun leaking fuel about 65 miles off Terciera Island, one of nine islands in the Portuguese Azores chain about 900 miles from Portugal.

Portuguese aviation investigators arrived at the island airport on Saturday. Canada's Transport Ministry and Transportation Safety Board are also participating in the investigation.

Passengers described the panic that swept through the cabin during the landing.

"People panicked and screamed. We lost altitude quickly and the plane depressurised and jerked about," the AP quoted passenger Joao Gaspar as saying.

Renato Marcelino described the emergency landing as "brutal ... horrible … everything you could imagine," Reuters reported.

Marcelino said many passengers began shouting and praying as the plane lost altitude.

"We all got in position to crash, the attendants began to shout, 'Hold on' and things like that. (Then) people at the windows began to say, 'Land, we see land.' It was the base."

Daniel Rodrigues of Toronto described the flight attendants as "hysterical."

"One of them was swearing, and the one making the announcement that we had to make an emergency landing sounded very scared," Reuters quoted him as saying. "Once people heard her voice, all the old people started praying."