Delta Air Lines confirms no fatalities after plane crashes, flips upside down at Toronto Pearson International Airport, leaving 18 injured — miraculously none critical
A Delta Air Lines plane crash-landed and flipped upside down on the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday — and miraculously, everyone on board escaped the wreck without critical injuries, officials said.
Eighteen people were hurt, though none of them were believed to have been badly injured, when Delta Flight 4819 crashed on landing on the snowy tarmac in Canada’s largest city, Toronto’s Pearson Airport Fire Chief Todd Aitken said at a press conference Monday evening.
Paramedics had previously said three people were in critical condition, including a child, before Aitken shared the update.
All 80 people made it off the plane before it burst into flames.
The flight, operated by the airline’s subsidiary Endeavor Air, took off from Minneapolis about 11:47 a.m. and crashed at about 2:15 p.m.
It was not immediately clear what caused the plane to go belly-up, but Aitken noted that the runway “was dry and there were no cross-wind conditions.” The mangled airliner was left smoldering on the snowy tarmac as dazed passengers scrambled out.
The Bombardier CRJ-900LR had one wing severely crumpled and the tail section was partially sheared off.
A terrifying video of the wreckage posted by Storyful shows a pair of firefighters jumping out a side door of the aircraft and sprinting to safety just seconds before a massive fireball erupted from the fuselage.
Paramedics told the BBC they transported the three gravely injured passengers to three different hospitals, including a “pediatric patient,” a man in his 60s and a woman in her 40s.
The injured child’s age was not immediately clear, and the identities of the other hurt passengers were not provided.
Airport staff told CTV News that the airport had shut down all arrivals and departures in the wake of the crash.
A dramatic video posted on Facebook by a passenger shows firefighters, paramedics, and other emergency personnel frantically making their way across the snow-swept runway to the upside-down plane.
Passenger Ashley Zook posted several videos capturing the chaos on her Snapchat Story, including one of her hanging upside down while still strapped in her seat immediately after the crash.
“I was just in a plane crash. Oh my God!” Zook gasped as she looked back at the decimated aircraft in horror.
Other passengers captured what they could after deplaning while staggering away from the wreckage.
“We’re in Toronto. We just landed. Our plane crashed, it’s upside down. The fire department is on site. It’s upside down. Most people appear to be OK. We’re all getting off. So [that’s what’s] going on,” passenger John Nelson can be heard narrating in a video he posted on Facebook moments after the crash.
Another person was quick to credit heavenly intervention for saving all 80 lives on board.
“We’re believing God for a full recovery. Never have we heard of a plane crashing upside down but I thank him for his power preventing additional mourning in our aviation family this week Please continue to pray for me as I fly for the next 9 days straight,” Ian Crowder wrote on Facebook.
Constable Sarah Patten of the Peel Regional Police in Ontario told Reuters, “It is my understanding that most of the passengers are out and unharmed but we’re still trying to make sure so we’re still on scene investigating.”
The Association of Flight Attendants union confirmed reports in a post on X that there were “no fatalities” in the incident.
The plane is a Bombardier CRJ-900LR, which can seat up to 88 passengers and four crew members, according to flight records.
The crash followed a weekend winter storm in the area that dumped nearly 9 inches of snow on the airport, forcing crews to work overnight Sunday to clear key runways.
It’s the first major incident involving a commercial passenger jet since the Jan. 29 crash of an Army Black Hawk helicopter and American Airlines Flight 5342 at Ronald Reagan National Airport, in which 67 passengers and crew were killed.
Delta Air Lines did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
