ATLANTA — Channel 2 Action News has confirmed that a Delta plane has flipped upon landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
The flight originated from Minneapolis. A total of 18 people were injured.
Of those people, two were airlifted to Toronto trauma centers, and at least one pediatric patient was taken to a children’s hospital.
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.
[PHOTOS: Delta plane crashes, flips on runway at Toronto airport]
“Emergency teams are responding. All passengers and crew are accounted for,” the airport said in a post on X.
According to the FAA, Delta Flight 4819 was operated by Endeavor Air and crashed at the airport around 2:45 p.m.
The flight had 80 people on board and all were evacuated. Some 76 people were passengers and four were crew members.
Delta said in a statement that its “primary focus is taking care of those impacted.”
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.
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“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.
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.”
Delta CEO Ed Bastian released a statement, saying:
“The hearts of the entire global Delta family are with those affected by today’s incident at Toronto-Pearson International Airport. I want to express my thanks to the many Delta and Endeavor team members and the first responders on site. We are working to confirm the details and will share the most current information on news.delta.com as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, please take care and stay safe."
The NTSB said it is “leading a team of U.S. investigators to assist the Transportation Safety Board of Canada with their investigation of today’s accident.”
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said he has been in touch with Delta about the crash.
Endeavor Air, based in Minneapolis, is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines and the world’s largest operator of CRJ-900 aircraft. The airline operates 130 regional jets on 700 daily flights to over 126 cities in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, according to the company’s website.
The CRJ-900, a popular regional jet, was developed by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier. It’s in the same family of aircraft as the CRJ-700, the type of plane involved in the midair collision near Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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