TORONTO (AP) — A badly injured child is among eight people who were hurt Monday when a Delta Airlines plane flipped upon arrival at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
The airport confirmed that an “incident” occurred with the Delta flight from Minneapolis and that all 80 passengers and crew are accounted for. One passenger is critically injured and seven others were also hurt.
Video from the scene shows the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR upside down on the snowy tarmac as emergency workers hose it down. The plane was somewhat obscured by snow from a winter storm that hit Toronto over the weekend.
Ornge air ambulance said it was transporting one pediatric patient to Toronto’s SickKids hospital and two adults with critical injuries to other hospitals.
It is too early to say what caused the plane to flip but weather may have played a factor. According to the Meteorological Service of Canada, the airport was experiencing blowing snow and winds of 32 mph gusting to 40 mph. The temperature was about 16.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will head up the investigation and provide any updates.
It is at least the fourth major aviation mishap in North America in the past month. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on Jan. 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on Jan. 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground and 10 were killed in a plane crash in Alaska.
Delta said in a statement it was “aware of reports of Endeavor Flight 4819 operating from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Toronto-Pearson International Airport as involved in an incident.”
Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford said he is “relieved there are no casualties after the incident at Toronto Pearson.” Toronto is the capital of Ontario.
“Provincial officials are in contact with the airport and local authorities and will provide any help that’s needed,” Ford said.
Endeavor Air, based in Minneapolis, is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines and the world’s largest operator of CRJ-900 aircraft. The airline operates 130 regional jets on 700 daily flights to over 126 cities in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean, according to the company’s website.
The CRJ900, a popular regional jet, was developed by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier. It’s in the same family of aircraft as the CRJ700, the type of plane involved in the midair collision near Reagan National Airport on Jan. 29.
Comments