On February 17, 2025, a Delta airplane crashed in Toronto, Canada, and by some miracle, almost every passenger on the aircraft escaped without a scratch. Others were not so lucky, but there were zero fatalities from this incident. The plane was reported to have flipped upside down, skidded along the snowy runway, and finally came to a dramatic halt while still inverted, and in the process lost both its tail and an entire wing.
Some of the 80 people that were onboard this aircraft during the incident were left hanging upside down while they remained strapped in their seats, before being able to escape. The cause of this crash is still under investigation with many speculating that it was the harsh winter weather that is to blame, but some are also taking into consideration the possibility that the plane landed badly. They have also credited the plane’s safety features with saving the lives of those onboard, considering that there were no fatalities involved in this crash.
The crash took place a little after 14:00 local time on Monday, February 17, 2025. It involved Delta Air Lines flight DL4819 with passengers aboard a model CRJ-900 plane. It was carrying 76 passengers and four crew members. They arrived at Toronto from the US city of Minneapolis and as it landed, the plane is reported to have hit the runway, slid for a distance, and then flipped over, are the observations from Dan Ronan who is a journalist and pilot licensed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), who has spoken to BBC news about the incident.
According to the Transportation Safety Board senior investigator Ken Webster, parts of the plane were separated after it crashed. As soon as it happened, fire crews rushed to the scene to extinguish the flames. It is still unknown as to how the plane was upended so suddenly, leaving at least 18 people injured, including a child who is thankfully reported to be in good condition. At the time, Toronto had been seeing strong winds and many of their employees had worked through the night before to clear remnants of about 8 inches of snow that covered the airport over the previous weekend. As the plane got closer to the airport to land, air traffic controllers notified its pilots of the 38 mph wind gusts that they would get hit by. Within only a couple of minutes, the plane had flipped over and the fire erupted as the plane slammed into the runway, which left the passengers hanging upside down while still strapped inside the aircraft.
Passengers of the aircraft incident recall what happened on the scene. Fire engines raced to the area to put out the fires over the plane’s thrashed fuselage. It is undetermined what exactly caused the initial fires, but video footage has revealed that the aircraft’s fiberglass frame had melted around the engine and broad black streaks stained the side of it. Once the plane had halted, still inverted, passenger Peter Koukov, who was interviewed by CNN, said, “we were upside down hanging like bats.”
Koukov was able to unstrap himself from his seat and stand upright on the ceiling of the plane, but others had to get help to get down from their seats. Flight attendants that were working the flight helped passengers crawl their way to safety out of open exit doors, and urged passengers to leave their belongings behind to get them to safety as soon as they could. This incident caused Toronto Pearson International to temporarily shut down all five of their runways, which caused delays and forced multiple flights to divert to other airports that were close by. The other two runways, where the crash occurred, remained closed for several days for investigators to be able to analyze the scene.
This crash has shown all of America that airlines have put in many safety measures to try to keep as many people safe as possible, even in times of incidents such as these.
Additional Sources: www.cnn.com/world/live-news/delta-plane-crash-toronto-flips-02-17-25/index.html
