Investigators are considering weather conditions and the possibility of human error and aircraft malfunction as they attempt to determine why the Delta Air Line exploded in flames and turned upside down when they tried to land in Toronto. , aviation expert said Tuesday.
Witnesses and video from the scene Monday afternoon show the plane landed violently and the right wing was sheared. It explodes into flames before sliding down the runway and flipping over. Miraculously, all 80 people on a flight from Minneapolis to Toronto's Pearson International Airport survived.
“From the video, it looks like the plane landed very violently and the main gear on the right has collapsed. Ella Atkins, head of the Department of Aerospace and Marine Engineering at Virginia Tech, has a slipped tail and right wing. I started rolling the plane to the right: “During the rollover, the right wing and tail were cut off, causing a fire due to slipping and fuel leakage at least from the right wing tank.”
All but two of the 21 people injured during the flight have been released from hospital, the airport CEO said Tuesday.
“There were no life-threatening injuries to how grateful we are,” Deborah Flint, CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, told a news conference.
Crash investigation
Communication between the tower and the pilot was normal in the approach, and it is not clear what went wrong when the plane (the Mitsubishi CRJ-900 created by Canadian company Bombardier) landed.
Aviation experts said investigators will consider ground conditions, pilot behavior before landing, and potential issues with landing gear. The Canada Road Safety Board is leading the investigation with support from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Juan Browne, a commercial pilot who discusses aviation accidents on his popular YouTube channel, said the preliminary data suggests that descent, crosswinds and weather speeds are “within limits.”
However, Brown raised concerns about the pilot's actions before landing.
“It appears the aircraft didn't burn at all,” Brown said. Flaring slows down the aircraft's descent rate. “They drove it onto the runway.”
According to Canadian weather services, at the time of the crash, Pearson had blown 51 kph of snow and wind and plunged into 65 kph. The temperature was about 8.6 degrees Celsius. Brown said that blowing snow reduces visibility.
Michael McCormick, assistant professor and program coordinator of air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, said he was able to check the landing gear and check the staff. He said he would consider staff. The ground and the aircraft.
“They look at the number of people who work on both the aircraft and the control tower, and they look at the schedule,” McCormick said. Do they often have personnel? ”
Canadian investigators declined to comment on preliminary theory.
“At this point it is too early to say what caused the accident,” TSB Senior Investigator Ken Webster said in a video statement Tuesday that he was standing near the remains of the aircraft.
He said investigators looked into the wreckage and runways, deleted the cockpit audio and flight data recorder and sent it to the lab for analysis.
“It all just lay down.”
Peter Carlson, who was traveling to Toronto for an emergency meeting, said the landing was “very powerful.”
“All of a sudden it all turned sideways, and the next thing I know is, it's kind of a blink, I'm upside down and still tied up,” he told CBC News.
Everyone survived the Delta collision, wings designed to come out to reduce explosions, well-trained flight crews, and built to withstand the effects of up to 16 times the force This is proof of the safety improvements made by airlines and aircraft manufacturers, including seats. of gravity.
“That seat is your only great resource for you to continue to be protected,” McCormick said. “There's a reason why flight attendants walk around the aircraft before (landing)… make sure everyone has their seat belts secured.”
But is it safe to fly?
The collision was North America's fourth major aviation accident in recent weeks. On January 29, a commercial jetliner and an army helicopter collided near Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC, killing 67 people. On January 31st, a medical transport crashed in Philadelphia, killing six people on board and another person on the ground. And on February 6th, 10 people were killed in a crash on an Alaska plane.
Nonetheless, air travel is “very safe,” according to Jeff Gutsetti, an airline safety consultant and former FAA and NTSB investigator.
“The chances of getting injured or killed in a commercial airline accident are much less than driving in a car,” Gutsetti said.
Still, he is worried about a federal aviation administration layoff under the Trump administration. “I am concerned that the proposed cuts and FAA changes could increase the risk of further accidents,” he said.
The Delta flight was cleared to land around 2:10pm, indicating that the Control Tower warned the pilot about possible “bumps” in the approach.
“We are pleased to announce that we are committed to providing safety and security services to our customers,” said John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems, aviation safety consulting firm in St. Petersburg, Florida. “The pilots are trained and experienced to handle it.”
Carlson said he hit the ceiling, which turned into a floor when he undressed his seat belt. He smelled the gas, saw aviation fuel flowing down the cabin windows, knowing that they all had to come out. Carlson and another man kicked his mother and son out of the plane, causing Carlson to fall onto the snowy runway.
“We all wanted to get out of the aircraft,” he said.
