TORONTO — A Delta Air Lines jet attempting to land at Toronto Pearson Airport amid strong winds and drifting snow crashed and turned 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 nonlife-threatening injuries who was airlifted to a trauma center, and a child who was in critical but nonlife-threatening condition.
The remaining people who were injured were taken to hospitals with minor-to-moderate injuries.
The crash landing in Toronto comes nearly three weeks after another regional jet, operated by American Airlines, crashed in the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., after being hit by an 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 2:45 p.m. 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 miles per hour, with gusts of up to 38 miles per hour, 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.
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 ended up at the intersection of Runways 23 and 15L, the controller said. That’s not far from the start of the runway.
“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 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, chief executive of aviation safety consulting firm Safety Operating Systems in St. Petersburg, Fla. “We’ve seen a couple of cases of takeoffs where airplanes have ended up inverted, but it’s pretty rare.”
Cox, who flew for US 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. So it was windy. But the airplanes are designed and certified to handle that. The pilots are trained and experienced to handle that.”
Flight officials issued a ground stop advisory in response to the crash, forcing flights bound for Pearson to be diverted to airports in Ottawa, Ontario, and Montreal. The ground stop was later lifted. 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 p.m., 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 FAA records. With regular maintenance, such passenger jets are often operated for two to three decades, or more.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.