A co-pilot with 10,000 hours of flying experience was at the controls of Air France Flight 358 when it overshot a runway and burst into flames at Toronto's main airport, airline chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta said Wednesday.

That means the unnamed co-pilot would have had about 10 years' experience handling airplanes, based on the maximum amount of flying hours a Canadian pilot is allowed to log each month.

Spinetta praised the plane's crew for doing its job professionally, "which explains that we have no dead people in this crash."

Aftermath of Air France Flight 358 overshooting a runway and bursting into flames. (CP Photo/Adrian Wyld)
Aftermath of Air France Flight 358 overshooting a runway and bursting into flames. (CP Photo/Adrian Wyld)

Forty-three of the 309 people on board the jet had minor injuries while escaping from the plane after it sped off its runway and into a wooded ravine at Pearson International Airport Tuesday afternoon.

"I don't know if we should speak of a miracle, but we can certainly speak of the training of the crew – above all, the professionalism of the crew," said Spinetta."

Appearing at a news conference at Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, Spinetta was surrounded by airport workers and relatives of the 101 French citizens aboard the aircraft when it made its landing in a severe thunderstorm.

Air France chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta at a press conference on Wednesday, Aug. 3. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)
Air France chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta at a press conference on Wednesday, Aug. 3. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

He said the Airbus A340-300 had no record of any technical problems and it was last checked on July 5.

Spinetta refused to speculate on the causes of the crash before information could be recovered from the aircraft's flight recorders.

However, he stressed that Canadian authorities had re-opened Toronto's airport shortly before the Air France flight arrived from Paris, and said that the plane was "probably" the first to land after that development.

Air France would be "totally transparent" during the investigation into the accident, Spinetta added.

Shortly after the news conference, Spinetta left for Toronto with a team of employees to inspect the burned shell of the plane and to co-ordinate the company's investigation.