Delta Air Lines regional flight DL4819, operated by one of its subsidiaries Endeavor Air, from Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, landed at Toronto Pearson Airport in Canada on Monday, the 17th of February, in windy conditions after a snowstorm, flipping upside down and 18 of the 80 people on board were injured, three of them critically, officials said, according to the BBC and Reuters.
One child, a 60-year-old man and a 40-year-old woman were seriously injured, but officials said none of them were known to have suffered critical injuries.
Pictures and videos circulated on social media show the plane upside down and lying on its roof in the snow-covered tarmac. At least one wing was missing after the accident. A video shows people getting out of the overturned aircraft while fire crews spray it with foam. Airport staff helped the passengers to get off the plane.
A Delta flight carrying roughly 80 passengers from Minnesota appears to have crash landed at Toronto Pearson Airport. No casualties have been reported as of this time. Numerous photos and videos have been released showing passengers safely exiting the plane, which flipped upside… pic.twitter.com/YWjztVufla
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) February 17, 2025
Inside view of Pearson plane crash in Toronto 😳🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/dh575OHOO9
— RTN (@RTNCanada) February 17, 2025
“Most people seem to be OK,” Nelson said in a video. He later told CNN that nothing unusual was noticeable before landing.
“We skidded sideways, then rolled on our backs,” he said, adding that “a big fireball came out of the left side of the plane”.
“We were hanging like bats,” said Peter Koukov, who was also on board.
Nelson said he was able to unbuckle his seat belt himself, adding that “some people were hanging and needed help”.
Canadian authorities said they would investigate the cause of the crash, which is not yet known.
Toronto Pearson Airport has experienced weather-related delays in recent days as heavy snow and cold weather hit the Ontario region. Two storms, one on Wednesday and one on Sunday, covered the city with a total of 30-50 cm of snow.
Before that, on Monday, the airport warned that “cold temperatures and strong winds are approaching”. It said it was expecting a “busy day” as airlines “recover from this weekend’s snowstorm, which dumped more than 22cm of snow on the airport”.
“The Delta flight landed in Toronto at 14:13 local time and a “gusty crosswind and snowstorm” was reported at the time of the crash, according to FlightRadar24.
Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken said on Monday evening that although the investigation was just beginning, they could say that “the runway was dry and there was no crosswind”.
This contradicts earlier reports of wind gusts in excess of 64 km/h and crosswinds.
Experts pointed out that a roof-tipping accident is rare and unique, while pointing out that the survival of 80 people is a testimony to the efficiency of modern aircraft design and safety regulations.
The airport was closed shortly after the incident, but flights to and from Toronto Pearson resumed at around 17.00 local time, the airport said.
The three previous incidents of aircraft overturning during landing occurred with McDonnell Douglas MD-11s: the 2009 FedEx crash in Tokyo killed two pilots, the 1999 China Airlines crash in Hong Kong killed three pilots and the 1997 FedEx crash in Newark resulted in no fatalities.
The crash in Canada followed other recent crashes in North America. In Washington, an army helicopter collided with a CRJ-700 passenger jet, killing 67 people, while at least seven people died when a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia and ten died in a passenger plane crash in Alaska.