Delta plane flips upside down; over a dozen hurt

A Delta Air Lines plane carrying 80 persons flipped over on landing at Toronto’s main airport on Monday, resulting in injuries to at least 18 passengers but no fatalities, officials reported.

Endeavor Air Flight 4819, operated by a Delta subsidiary, departed from Minneapolis, Minnesota, with 76 passengers and four crew members.

The incident occurred during its landing in the afternoon in Toronto, Canada’s largest city.

The cause of the crash and the circumstances leading to the aircraft flipping over are under investigation.

“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 the 18 injuries and no deaths.

Earlier reports from paramedic services indicated that three individuals were in critical condition: a child, a man in his 60s, and a woman in her 40s.

Lawrence Saindon of the paramedic services said that all the injured, including those with minor injuries, were transported to local hospitals by ambulance and helicopter.

Images shared on social media and broadcast locally depicted passengers evacuating the overturned CRJ-900 aircraft, struggling against strong winds and blowing snow.

Firefighters were observed spraying water on the plane as smoke emerged from the fuselage while passengers were still disembarking.

Deborah Flint, chief executive of the Toronto airport authority, said at a news conference that no other aircraft were involved.

She praised the “heroic” efforts of the emergency responders who “reached the site within minutes and quickly evacuated the passengers.” Flint noted that some passengers “have already been reunited with their friends and their families.”

Following the incident, the airport suspended all flights, resuming operations around 5 p.m. local time, over two hours later. Airport officials warned of significant delays for travelers.

Delta acknowledged that the flight operated by Endeavor had been “involved in an incident. Initial reports were that there are no fatalities.”

A severe snowstorm had impacted eastern Canada on Sunday, and lingering strong winds and freezing temperatures affected Toronto on Monday. Airlines were operating additional flights to compensate for weekend cancellations caused by the storm.

“The snow has stopped coming down, but frigid temperatures and high winds are moving in,” the airport had cautioned earlier, anticipating “a busy day in our terminals with over 130,000 travelers on board around 1,000 flights.”