Toronto: A Delta Air Lines jet with 80 people onboard crash-landed Monday at Toronto’s main airport, officials said, flipping upside down and leaving at least 18 people injured but causing no deaths.
Endeavor Air Flight 4819 with 76 passengers and four crew was landing in the afternoon in Canada’s largest metropolis, having flown from Minneapolis in the US state of Minnesota, the airline said.
No explanation of the cause of the accident, or how the plane ended up flipped with its wings clipped, has been provided.
“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,” said Todd Aitken, the airport’s fire chief.
He confirmed that 18 people had been injured in the accident, with no fatalities.
A massive snow storm hit eastern Canada on Sunday. Strong winds and bone-chilling temperatures could still be felt in Toronto on Monday when airlines added flights to make up for weekend cancellations due to the storm.
“The snow has stopped coming down, but frigid temperatures and high winds are moving in,” the airport warned earlier, adding that it was “expecting a busy day in our terminals with over 130,000 travellers on board around 1,000 flights.”
Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand confirmed there were 80 people on the flight. “I’m closely following the serious incident at the Pearson Airport involving Delta Airlines flight 4819 from Minneapolis,” she posted on X.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he was “relieved there are no casualties after the incident.”
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board deployed a team of investigators to the site of the crash.
They will be assisted by the US Federal Aviation Administration, which also sent a team to the scene, according to US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy.
The crash comes after other recent air incidents in North America including a mid-air collision between a US Army helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington that killed 67 people, and a medical transport plane crash in Philadelphia that left seven dead.
