Video from the scene shows Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR upside down on a snowy runway as emergency workers hose it down.
WASHINGTON – 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, the airport's finest The management officer said.
Snow protrudes to 40 mph (65 kph) when a flight from Minneapolis attempted to communicate between the tower and the pilot, with 76 passengers and four crew members attempting to land around 2:15pm. It was snowing. When the plane lands, it's very dramatically wrong.
The Canadian authorities held two short report sessions but did not provide details regarding the crash. Video posted on social media only showed the aftermath of the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR capsizes, with the fuselage appearing unharmed, and firefighters left the fire as passengers climbed and crossed the tarmac I inhaleed.
“We are extremely grateful for the loss of life or relatively minor injuries,” Deborah Flint, CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, told reporters.
Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken said 18 passengers were taken to hospital. Earlier in the 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.
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 collision was North America's fourth major aviation accident in the last three 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.
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.
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.”
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 leading the team supporting Canada's investigation.
“The hearts of the entire Delta family around the world are with those affected by today's incident at Toronto Pearson International Airport,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement. .
Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz said he is in touch with Delta about the crash.
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.
