What We Know About the Delta Plane Crash in Toronto
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A Delta Air Lines passenger jet made a dramatic crash landing at Toronto airport on Monday afternoon, flipping upside down on the tarmac with its tail and one wing shorn off.
But all 80 people aboard clambered out of the jet, which was coming in from Minneapolis. At least 18 of them suffered injuries, some of them critical but not life threatening.
The authorities are investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred amid strong winds and drifting snow.
It was the latest in a spate of incidents that have rattled travelers globally, including a crash in South Korea in December that killed 179 people and a fatal midair collision near Washington that left 67 people dead.
Here is what to know about the crash in Toronto.
The plane’s roof became its floor.
Pete Koukov, a professional skier from Colorado who was on Flight 4819, said that nothing seemed amiss during the plane’s final descent.
“The second that the wheels hit the ground, then everything happened,” Mr. Koukov, 28, said in an interview on Monday night. “The next thing I know, we’re sideways.”
The plane skidded on its right side, said Mr. Koukov, who was sitting at a window seat on the other side of the plane and saw flames as the plane hit the ground. It eventually ended belly side up.
“I unbuckled pretty fast and kind of lowered myself to the floor, which was the ceiling,” Mr. Koukov said. “People were panicking.”
There was drifting snow.
There were strong winds coming from the west at about 29 miles per hour, with gusts of up to 38 miles per hour, around 2:15 p.m., the time of the crash, according to the authorities. There was also drifting snow in Toronto, which was struck by two snowstorms in the past few days.
The weather advisories for Toronto Pearson International Airport at the time of the crash “indicated a gusting crosswind and blowing snow,” according to Flightradar24, an aviation tracking website.
The cause of the crash will be investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which will be assisted by a team of American investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration.
There were 76 passengers onboard.
The flight had a crew of four, according to Delta, and the rest were passengers. Of those, 22 were Canadians.
Some of the injured were taken to hospitals but most passengers were taken to a Sheraton Gateway Hotel, near the airport’s terminals.
They left around 7 p.m. local time, picked up by taxis and family members, a hotel staff member said, declining to provide more details.
Operations at the airport resumed at 5 p.m. local time although two of the five runways remain closed.
The plane was a Bombardier jet.
The model CRJ900 aircraft was operated by Endeavor Air, a Delta subsidiary that typically operates smaller planes for the airline.
It was about 16 years old, according to F.A.A. records. With regular maintenance, such passenger jets are often operated for two to three decades, or more.
More than 380 CRJ900s are used by airlines around the world, according to Cirium, an aviation data company. The aircraft, which has been in operation for more than two decades, has a solid safety record, according to Cirium data.
Vjosa Isai and Qasim Nauman contributed reporting.