A Delta airplane Monday afternoon crash landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport, flipping upside down on the runway. Extremely fortunately, no deaths have been reported as of Tuesday morning. According to Delta, 18 passengers have been transported to local hospitals with injuries.
Delta Connection flight 4819 from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport was operated by Endeavor Air and carried 80 people—four crew and 76 passengers.
“The hearts of the entire global Delta family are with those affected by today’s incident at Toronto-Pearson International Airport,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian in a statement Monday evening. “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.”
Video taken from a smartphone from the cockpit of another plane shows the CRJ-900 regional jet landing on a snow-covered runway before turning onto its right side, with its wing breaking fully off before flipping upside down. Note: The video contains sensitive language.
The Associated Press reported that snow was blown by winds up to 40 mph as the aircraft attempted to land. Communications between the plane and air control tower were normal on approach—although the control tower did warn pilots of a possible air flow “bump” on the approach.
The crash becomes the fourth major aviation accident in the U.S. this year, including the country’s deadliest commercial aviation crash since 2001 when American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing all 64 people aboard the two aircraft. Less than a week later, an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia, killing all six onboard and one on the ground. Several days after that, a turboprop operated by Bering Air crashed in Alaska, just southeast of Nome, killing all 10 onboard.
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