Footage has emerged of the fiery plane crash at Toronto’s Pearson airport on Monday, showing the Delta Air Lines jet skidding along the runway and then flipping over, as a wing rips off and the tail is engulfed in flames.
The crash, which occurred at Canada’s busiest airport, sent 21 people to the hospital, including three in critical condition.
Soon after the crash, mobile phone clips captured the harrowing moments when passengers escaped through the plane’s upside-down doors and into the bitter cold. Blasts of fire retardant hung in the air and some of the passengers stood dazed in the snow. Others unleashed a string of expletives as they processed the unfolding chaos.
“Oh no, no, no, no, no,” the person recording the crash can be heard saying as the fuselage rolls over.
Two adults in critical condition were airlifted to a nearby trauma centre and one child was taken by ambulance to a hospital in downtown Toronto. In a post on social media on Tuesday, the airline said 19 people had since been released from hospital.
Flight 4819, a Bombardier CRJ900 jet operated by the Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air, crashed while landing in Toronto around 2.45pm local time (7.45pm Irish time), having flown from Minneapolis in the US state of Minnesota.
In audio from the air traffic communications, the plane was described “upside down and burning” moments after impact, with passengers exiting the aircraft as plumes of thick black smoke poured from the burning fuselage. The US Federal Aviation Authority said all 80 people onboard had been evacuated.
Peter Carlson, a passenger on the plane, told the Toronto Star the crash felt like he had “smacked into a wall” before passengers were flipped sideways. When he realised he was uninjured, Mr Carlson scanned the plane, undid his seatbelt and “kind of just dropped”. He sent a message to his wife: “I love you, and I love our kids” and helped other passengers exit the plane.
The CEO of Greater Toronto Airports Authority, Deborah Flint, hailed the response of the plane’s crew, telling reporters on Tuesday: “The crew on Delta flight 4819 heroically led passengers to safety, evacuating a jet that had overturned on the runway on landing amid smoke and fire. I thank each and everyone of these heroes.”
The cause of the crash is not yet clear, but Todd Aitken, the airport’s fire chief, said: “It’s very early on. It’s really important that we do not speculate. What we can say is the runway was dry and there was no crosswind conditions.”
The crash came as the country’s biggest airport was struggling to clear a backlog of delayed and cancelled flights, following a huge snowstorm that battered the city on Sunday.
By Tuesday morning, two of the airport’s five runways remained closed. - Guardian
