TORONTO — A Delta Air Lines jet attempting to land at Toronto Pearson Airport amid strong winds and drifting snow crashed and flipped over on the tarmac Monday afternoon, finally coming to a rest with its belly up and with at least one wing shorn off.
Despite the aircraft’s dramatic landing, all 80 people aboard the plane, Flight 4819 from Minneapolis, were evacuated.
Photos and video showed passengers coming down the plane’s front and rear doors and walking away on the snow-covered tarmac as firefighters hosed down the aircraft.
At least 18 people were injured, according to Delta. They included one person with critical but not life-threatening injuries who was airlifted to a trauma centre, and a child who was in critical but non-life-threatening condition.
The remaining people who were injured were taken to hospitals with minor-to-moderate injuries. Officials said 22 of the passengers were Canadians and the rest were from other countries.
The crash landing in Toronto comes nearly three weeks after another regional jet, operated by American Airlines, crashed in the Potomac River in Washington, after being hit by a US Army helicopter, leaving no survivors.
In Canada, the Delta plane — a CRJ-900 built by Bombardier and operated by a Delta subsidiary, Endeavor Air — crashed while landing around 2.45pm local time, Federal Aviation Administration officials said in a statement.
According to the weather service of Environment Canada, there were strong winds coming from the west at about 29 mph, with gusts of up to 38 mph, at the time of the crash. The weather service also reported drifting snow in Toronto, which, like much of Ontario, was hit with two snowstorms in the past few days.
Airport officials had said earlier in the day that they were expecting “a busy day” as airlines caught up after the back-to-back snowstorms, including a weekend snowstorm that dumped more than 8 inches of snow.
A small fleet of orange snow removal machines worked to clear the runways just before sunset Monday.
In a statement, Delta said it was aware of reports of the crash and was “working to confirm any details.” The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will lead the investigation, officials said.
Announcements over the intercom at the airport’s crowded departure hall warned of operational delays as passengers were stalled at the check-in line Monday afternoon.
“It’s a little bit of a logistical nightmare,’’ said Teresa Norris, who was trying to fly home to Montreal.
By 5 pm, arrivals and departures had resumed at the airport, and all 80 onboard, including 76 passengers and 4 crew members, had been accounted for, according to airport authorities.
Endeavor Air, the Delta subsidiary, typically runs smaller planes on shorter routes for its parent airline.
Endeavor’s fleet includes about 120 Bombardier CRJ-900s. Those aircraft are configured with 70 or 76 seats.
The aircraft is about 16 years old, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. With regular maintenance, such passenger jets are often operated for two to three decades, or more.
There are more than 380 CRJ-900s in use 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.
The crash Monday added to a spate of aviation accidents that have rattled travellers in recent weeks.
On Jan 29, an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet that was on its final approach to Ronald Reagan National Airport near Washington, killing all 67 people on both aircraft.
The helicopter was on a training mission and was flying about 100 feet higher than authorised at the time of the collision, the nation’s deadliest aviation accident since 2009.
Two days later, a small medical plane carrying six people crashed near a shopping centre in northeast Philadelphia, killing all on board and one person on the ground.
On Feb 2, a Delta flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam returned to the Twin Cities because of a problem with the plane’s flaps, television station KSTP reported. There were 272 passengers on that flight.
On Feb 5, a Japan Airlines plane clipped a parked Delta Air Lines plane while taxiing at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, impaling the tail of the Delta jet. No injuries were reported.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
