A Delta Airlines plane flipped upon arrival at Toronto’s Pearson Airport and ended up on its roof Monday, injuring 19 people including three who are in critical condition.
The airport confirmed on X that an “incident” occurred with the Delta flight from Minneapolis and that 76 passengers and four crew are accounted for. The accident happened at about 2:15 p.m. and flights at the airport, which handles more passengers than any other Canadian airport, were grounded for around two and half hours.
Video from the scene shows the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR upside down on the snowy tarmac as emergency workers hose it down. The plane was somewhat obscured by snow from a winter storm that hit Toronto over the weekend.
Ornge air ambulance said it was transporting one pediatric patient to Toronto’s SickKids hospital and two adults with critical injuries to other hospitals in the city.
“Emergency teams are responding,” the airport said in a post on the social platform X. “All passengers and crew are accounted for.”
Tower controllers were heard speaking with the crew of a medical helicopter that had just left Pearson and was returning to help with the crash. The plane came to a rest at the intersection of Runways 23 and 15L, the controller said. That’s not far from the start of the runway.
“Just so you’re aware, there’s people outside walking around the aircraft there,” a tower controller said.
“Yeah, we’ve got it. The aircraft is upside down and burning,” the medical helicopter pilot responded.
It is too early to say what caused the plane to flip but weather may have played a factor. According to the Meteorological Service of Canada, the airport was experiencing blowing snow and winds of 32 mph (51 kph) gusting to 40 mph (65 kph). The temperature was about 16.5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8.6 degrees Celsius).
The audio recording from the tower at Toronto Pearson International Airport shows the flight was cleared to land at about 2:10 p.m. local time. The tower warns the pilots of a possible air flow bump in the glide path as the plane comes into land because of a preceding aircraft in front of it.
“It’s very rare to see something like this,” said John Cox, CEO of aviation safety consulting firm Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Florida. “We’ve seen a couple of cases of takeoffs where airplanes have ended up inverted, but it’s pretty rare.”
Cox, who flew for U.S. Air for 25 years and has worked on NTSB investigations, said the CRJ-900 aircraft is a proven aircraft that’s been in service for decades and does a good job of handling inclement weather.
“The weather conditions were windy. The wind was out of the west at 27 to 35 knots, which is about 38 miles an hour (61 kph). So it was windy. But the airplanes are designed and certified to handle that. The pilots are trained and experienced to handle that.”
Among the questions that need to be answered, Cox said, was why plane was missing a right wing.
“If one wing is missing, it’s going to have a tendency to roll over,” he said. “Those are going to be central questions as to what happened to the wing and the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. They will be found, if not today, tomorrow, and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will read them out and they will have a very good understanding of what actually occurred here.”
The last major crash at Pearson was in Aug. 2, 2005, when an Airbus A340 landing from Paris skidded off the runway and burst into flames amid stormy weather. All 309 passengers and crew aboard Air France Flight 358 survived the crash.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada would head up the investigation and provide any updates. The National Transportation Safety Board said it is leading a team of U.S. investigators to assist in the Canadian investigation.
It is at least the fourth major aviation mishap in North America in the past month. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground and 10 were killed in a plane crash in Alaska.
Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford said on X he is “relieved there are no casualties after the incident at Toronto Pearson.” Toronto is the capital of Ontario.
“Provincial officials are in contact with the airport and local authorities and will provide any help that’s needed,” Ford said.
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