Internet InfoMedia a delta plane crashes in toronto but tragedy is averted scaled

All 80 people aboard Delta Flight 4819 survived a crash landing at a windy and snowy Toronto airport.

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All 80 people on the flight from Minneapolis made it off the plane, which overturned and caught fire. At least 18 people were injured.Ian Willms for The New York Times

Delta Flight 4819’s landing seemed routine — until it wasn’t.

For the 80 people on board, the world lurched immediately after the wheels hit the ground at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday afternoon. The plane sparked and burst into flames as it skidded along the runway, then it rolled onto its back, its right wing shearing off.

In the blink of an eye, passengers found themselves hanging upside down, still strapped into their seats as jet fuel began running down the windows, said Pete Carlson, one of those on the flight.

“The absolute initial feeling is just, ‘Need to get out of this,’” Mr. Carlson told CBC, the Canadian national broadcaster.

But after a horrific string of fatal aviation accidents over the past two months, this crash proved different. Flight attendants and passengers were able to help each other out of the emergency exits and onto the snow. At least 18 people were injured, including one adult and one child in critical but non-life threatening condition, but everyone was expected to survive. By late Monday, some of the injured passengers had been released from the hospital, Delta said.

A video circulating on social media on Tuesday and verified by The New York Times showed the moment of the jet’s crash landing. The video, taken from a nearby runway, shows the aircraft landing hard on a snow-covered runway and then flipping over on its right side amid black clouds of smoke. The Times has so far been unable to reach the person who took the video.

The jet, a Bombardier CRJ900 operated by a Delta subsidiary, Endeavor Air, was landing at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time after a seemingly normal flight along the busy route between Minneapolis and Toronto.



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Sources: Aerial image by Airbus via Google Earth; liveact.net; Flight data by Flightradar24

By Pablo Robles

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