What happened
A Delta Air Lines regional jet from Minneapolis flipped upside-down while landing at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport Monday afternoon, its tail and one wing shorn off. At least 18 of the 80 people aboard were injured, three of them seriously though none with life-threatening injuries, Delta said.
Who said what
It is unclear what caused the Bombardier CRJ-900 to flip over, though “conditions at the time were harsh,” The Washington Post said, with wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour drifting snow. But the “runway was dry and there was no cross-wind conditions” when rescue crews reached the burning plane a few minutes after the crash, said Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken.
The plane’s final descent appeared normal, but “the second that the wheels hit the ground, then everything happened,” passenger Pete Koukov told The New York Times. “I unbuckled pretty fast and kind of lowered myself to the floor, which was the ceiling,” and “people were panicking.” The incident was the latest in a “string of plane crashes in recent weeks” that have “stirred fear among fliers and the aviation community,” The Wall Street Journal said.
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What next?
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is leading the investigation of the crash, with assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
