A Delta Air Lines regional jet flipped upside down upon landing at Toronto Pearson Airport in Canada on Monday, following windy conditions after a snowstorm. The incident resulted in injuries for 18 of the 80 passengers aboard, according to officials.
Three passengers, including a child, sustained critical injuries during the flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, authorities reported.
Delta confirmed that the accident involved a CRJ900 aircraft operated by Endeavor Air, carrying 76 passengers and four crew members. This 16-year-old aircraft, produced by Canada’s Bombardier and equipped with GE Aerospace engines, has a capacity of up to 90 seats.
Canadian officials have begun an investigation into the crash, whose cause remains undetermined.
Passenger John Nelson shared a video on Facebook capturing the aftermath, which depicted a fire engine dousing the inverted plane on the snow-laden runway.
Nelson later described that there were no prior warnings before the landing took a dramatic turn. “We hit the ground, and suddenly we were sideways and then upside down,” he recounted.
“I was able to just unbuckle and sort of fall and push myself to the ground. Some people were kind of hanging and needed help being helped down, while others managed to get down on their own,” he said.
Earlier that day, Pearson Airport was grappling with high winds and low temperatures, struggling to manage the backlog from a weekend snowstorm that had deposited over 22 cm of snow.
The Delta flight landed in Toronto at 2:13 p.m. local time, after an 86-minute journey, and stopped near the intersection of two runways, according to data from FlightRadar24.
An emergency worker reported to air traffic control that the aircraft was “upside down and burning,” after it was noted that passengers were evacuating near the wreckage, according to a recording from liveatc.net.
Deborah Flint, president of the Toronto airport, acknowledged the role of first responders in preventing any fatalities. “We are very grateful that there is no loss of life and relatively minor injuries,” she commented during a press conference.
Michael J. McCormick, a professor of air traffic management, noted the unusual nature of the crash’s dynamics but emphasized the resilience of modern aviation design.
“But the fact that 80 people survived an event like this is a testament to the engineering and the technology, the regulatory background that would go into creating a system where somebody can actually survive something that not too long ago would have been fatal,” he said.
Airport Delays
Delta reported that all 18 injured individuals were passengers who had been transported to local hospitals. Two were airlifted to trauma centers, and a child was taken to a pediatric hospital, according to Supervisor Lawrence Saindon of Peel Regional Paramedic Services.
Following the crash, the Toronto airport closed temporarily, affecting flights for over two hours with some rerouted to Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.
Flint indicated that there would be some ongoing delays and operational impacts at Toronto airport in the coming days while two runways are closed for the investigation.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada along with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are conducting a joint investigation into the incident.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which acquired the CRJ program from Bombardier in 2020, expressed awareness of the crash and committed to cooperating with the investigation.
This incident in Canada is among several recent North American aviation accidents, including a fatal collision between an Army helicopter and a CRJ-700 jet in Washington and crashes involving a medical transport in Philadelphia and a passenger plane in Alaska.
