able to exit the plane quickly, contributed to the safe evacuation of everyone on board. The first officer was the last person to leave the plane, which was evacuated within the required 90-second time frame. Emergency response teams arrived on site within 52 seconds of the accident occurring. The TSB official report states that "the first response vehicle arrived at the scene within one minute of the crash alarm sounding". Immediate aftermath After the accident, some of the passengers, including those who were injured, scrambled up the ravine onto Highway 401, which runs almost parallel to the runway. Peel Regional Police located the first officer and several passengers along the highway, receiving assistance from motorists who had been passing the airport at the time of the crash. Some of the injured passengers and the co-pilot were taken directly to hospitals by motorists, and the uninjured passengers were transported by motorists to the airport. The main fire continued to burn for two hours, dying out just before 18:00 EDT. All of the fires were extinguished by the early afternoon of the following day, at which time investigators were able to begin their work. The accident led to the cancellation or diversion of hundreds of flights, with ripple effects throughout the North American air traffic system. Four of the five runway surfaces at Pearson Airport were back in service by the night of 2 August, but the flight and passenger backlog continued through the next day. The accident also caused heavy traffic congestion throughout Toronto's highway system. Highway 401 is one of the world's busiest highways, and is the main route through the Greater Toronto Area; the crash occurred near the highway's widest point where eighteen lanes of traffic are directed toward major intersections with Highways 403 and 410 to the southwest and Highway 427 to the northeast. Although the fire was extinguished within hours, there was considerable congestion on the highway for days after the accident due to motorists slowing down or pulling over to view the wreckage. This created numerous traffic collisions, prompting the Ontario Provincial Police to increase patrols along that section of the highway. Weather conditions A METAR (weather observation) for Pearson was released almost exactly at the time of the accident. It stated that the weather at 20:01 UTC (16:01 EDT) consisted of winds from 340° true (north-northwest) at gusting to , with visibility in thunderstorms and