15 injured after plane flips on landing
At least 15 people have been injured, some critically, after a plane overturned on landing at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
The airport confirmed on X that an “incident” occurred on Monday (local time) with the Delta Airlines flight from Minneapolis and that all passengers and crew were accounted for.
Video from the scene showed the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR upside down on the snowy tarmac as emergency workers hosed it down.
“We just landed. Our plane crashed. It’s upside-down,” John Nelson, who took the video, said as he walked away from the plane.
“Firefighters on site. Most people are going to be OK. We’re all getting off.”
He noted that “most people appear to be OK” and that passengers were getting off the plane.
Ornge air ambulance said it was transporting one child to Toronto’s SickKids Hospital and two adults with critical injuries to other hospitals in the city.
“Emergency teams are responding,” the airport said in a post on the social platform X.
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“All passengers and crew are accounted for.”
While further details of the injured were unavailable, Delta said it did not believe there had been any fatalities.
The plane was carrying 76 passengers and four crew when it landed.
In the aftermath, it was partly obscured by snow from a winter storm that hit Toronto, capital of the Canadian province of Ontario, at the weekend.
It is too early to say what caused the plane to turn over, but weather might have played a factor.
The Meteorological Service of Canada said the airport was experiencing blowing snow and winds of 50km/h, gusting to 65km/h.
The temperature was about -8.6 degrees.
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The US Federal Aviation Administration said the Transportation Safety Board of Canada would lead the investigation and provide updates.
It is at least the fourth major aviation mishap in North America in the past month.
A commercial plane and an army helicopter collided near Washington DC on January 29, killing 67 people, a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 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 it was “aware of reports of Endeavour Flight 4819 operating from Minneapolis-St Paul to Toronto-Pearson International Airport as involved in an incident”.
Endeavour Air, which is 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 more than 126 cities in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, according to the company’s website.
The CRJ900, a popular regional jet, was developed by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier.
It is in the same family of aircraft as the CRJ700, the type of plane involved in the midair collision near Reagan National Airport on January 29.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on X he was “relieved there are no casualties after the incident at Toronto Pearson”.
“Provincial officials are in contact with the airport and local authorities and will provide any help that’s needed,” he said.
– with AAP
