TORONTO (AP) – Delta Air Lines jets flipped the roof over Monday while landing at Toronto's Pearson Airport, but all 80 people on board survived, with those injuries suffering relatively minor injuries, he said. The airport's chief executive said.
The flight from Minneapolis, where 76 passengers and four crew members attempted to run communication between the tower and the pilot, was not found to be normal on the approach. When the plane lands, it's dramatically wrong.
Peter Carlson, a passenger traveling to Toronto for an emergency meeting, said the landing was “very powerful.”
“All of a sudden, it was all lying down, and then it was like a blinking blink, upside down,” he said. CBC News.
The Canadian authorities held two short report sessions but did not provide details regarding the crash. Video posted on social media shows the aftermath of the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR capsizes, with the fuselage appearing unharmed and firefighters inhaling the rest of the fire as passengers climbed and crossed the tarmac.
“We are extremely grateful for the loss of life or relatively minor injuries,” Deborah Flint, CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, told reporters.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement that “the minds of the entire Delta family around the world are with the people affected.”
Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken said 18 passengers were taken to hospital. Earlier that day, Ornge Air Ambulance said it was transporting one pediatric patient to Sickkids Hospital in Toronto and two injured adults to other hospitals in the city.
Delta Air Lines plane flipped over when it arrived at Pearson Airport in Toronto and turned its roof on Monday.
Ambulance personnel arrived on the plane within minutes, and Aitken said the response was “going as planned.” He said, “The runway was dry and there was no cross-sectional condition.”
The crash was fourth Major Aviation Accidents In North America for the past three weeks. Commercial Jetliner and Army Helicopter Clashed near Reagan National Airport January 29th in Washington, DC Kill 67 people. a Medical transport crashed On January 31st, in Philadelphia, six people on board and another person on earth were killed. And on February 6th, 10 people were killed. A plane crash in Alaska.
A Delta Air Lines plane heading from Minneapolis to Toronto crashed at Pearson Airport in Toronto on Monday, February 17, 2025 (Canadian media via Teresa Barbieri/AP)
The last major crash in Pearson came on August 2, 2005 when an Airbus A340 from Paris slipped off the runway and exploded into flames in stormy weather. All 309 passengers and crew survived the crash on Air France Flight 358.
On Monday, Pearson was experiencing snow and winds plunging into 40 mph (65 kph), according to Canadian weather services. The temperature was about 16.5 degrees Fahrenheit (-8.6 degrees Celsius).
The Delta flight was cleared to land around 2:10pm, indicating that the Control Tower warned the pilot about a possible “bump” of the approach.
“It sounds like the controller is trying to help. It gives you a soaking up as the wind comes down. It goes up and down through the glide path,” said John Cox, CEO of Aviation, Florida. Safety Operating System, Safety Consulting Company in St. Petersburg.
“So the wind was strong. But the planes are designed and certified to handle that,” Cox said. “The pilots are trained and experienced to handle it.”
The plane rested at the intersection of Runway 23 and 15L, not too far from the start of the runway. Shortly after the crash, the Tower Controller spoke to the medical helicopter crew who had left Pearson and had returned to help.
“You know, there are people outside walking on the aircraft,” the controller said.
“Yeah, we have it. The aircraft is upside down and burning,” replied the medical helicopter pilot.
Carlson was among the people outside the aircraft. He said he hit the ceiling, which turned into a floor when he unsced his seat belt. He smelled gas, saw aviation fuel flowing down the cabin windows and knew he needed to leave, but his father's intuition and paramedic skills said it had begun.
Carlson and another man kicked his mother and her young son out of the plane, causing Carlson to fall into the tarmac. The snow was blowing, “It felt like I was stepping into the tundra.”
“I didn't care how cold it was. I didn't care if I had to walk or how long I had to stand. We all wanted to leave the aircraft. “I did,” he said.
Cox, who has been flying for the US AIR for 25 years and has been working on investigations by the US National Traffic Safety Commission, says that the CRJ-900 aircraft is a proven aircraft that has been in operation for decades and handles bad weather. He said he is doing a good job.
He said it's rare for a plane to end on its roof.
“We've seen some cases of takeoffs where planes have turned around, and that's pretty rare,” Cox said.
Among the questions that needed answers, Cox said there was a reason why the crashed plane lacked the right wing.
“If one wing is missing, you tend to roll over,” he said. “These will be the central questions about what happened to the wings and flight data recorders and cockpit voice recorders. They will be the Canadian Road Safety Board, if not today or tomorrow, to be able to do so. You'll read it out and you'll get a very good idea of what actually happened here.”
Delta Airlines aircraft sits upside down on a tarmac in the snow at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday, February 17, 2025 (Canadian media via Telesa Barbieri/AP)
The US Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the Canadian Road Safety Commission will head to the investigation and provide an update. The US NTSB said it is sending a team to help with the investigation in Canada.
Minneapolis-based Endeavor Air is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines and is the world's largest operator of CRJ-900 aircraft. The airline operates 130 regional jets on 700 daily flights to more than 126 cities in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, according to its website.
The popular regional jet, the CRJ-900, was developed by the Canadian aerospace company Bombardier. It is located in the same family of aircraft as the CRJ-700, an airplane involved in an air collision near Reagan National Airport on January 29th.
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Casey reported from Concord, New Hampshire. Reported by Associated Press journalist Michael Sissack in New York, Jack Dura of Bismarck, North Dakota, Alex Beiga of Los Angeles and Jim Morris of Vancouver, British Columbia.