A Delta Air Lines flight, carrying a total of 88 passengers and four crew members, crash-landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday, resulting in critical injuries for three passengers, including a child. The plane, identified as Delta Flight 4819, had departed from Minneapolis around 11:47 a.m. and the crash occurred just before 3 p.m.
Images from the scene depict the severely damaged aircraft, flipped upside-down on the snow-covered runway. Passengers can be seen scrambling out of the wreckage. The plane’s wing was significantly crumpled and the tail section partially sheared off.
The airport confirmed that all passengers and crew were accounted for following the crash. Reports indicate that at least eight people were injured in the incident. The three critically injured passengers, including a child and a man in his 60s, were transported to different hospitals. The exact ages of the injured child and the other adult passenger were not immediately disclosed.
The possibility of fatalities was not immediately clear. However, a post-crash statement from Toronto Pearson indicated that all passengers and crew members were accounted for.
Following the crash, the airport suspended all arrivals and departures. A video posted on Facebook by a passenger showed emergency personnel, including firefighters and paramedics, rushing across the snow-swept runway to the overturned plane.
The Peel Regional Police in Ontario confirmed that most passengers were unharmed and had been evacuated from the plane. The Association of Flight Attendants union also confirmed that there were no fatalities in the incident.
The aircraft involved in the crash was a Bombardier CRJ-900LR. The incident occurred after a winter storm had dumped nearly nine inches of snow on the airport, prompting crews to work overnight to clear the runways. This is the first major incident involving a commercial passenger jet since the crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines flight 5342 at Ronald Reagan National Airport in late January, which resulted in the death of 67 passengers and crew.