A Delta Air Lines flight that crashed in Toronto last month was descending at a high rate of speed in strong winds when it landed, flipped over after the collapse of its right landing gear and caught fire, a preliminary report into the incident said Thursday.
The right landing gear of the plane buckled and the jet’s right wing came off the fuselage, releasing a cloud of jet fuel that caught fire, the report said.
About two and a half seconds before touchdown, an alert had sounded indicating a high rate of descent, according to the preliminary report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
The preliminary report did not outline a cause but said investigators' focus includes “landing techniques, hard landings, and pilot training” as well as organizational and management factors.
There were no fatalities in the crash of the Bombardier CRJ-900 regional jet that flipped upside down after landing at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Feb. 17, but 21 people were taken to hospitals with injuries.
Two of the people have serious injuries, according to the TSB report.
Flight 4819 had 76 passengers, two pilots and two flight attendants on board, who had flown from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Toronto. Passengers had to evacuate through emergency exits from the upside-down plane.
Credit: Bhandari, Uttam
Credit: Bhandari, Uttam
Some passengers had trouble removing their seat belts because they were upside down, according to the report, and some were injured when they unbuckled their seat belts and fell down to the ceiling.
As fuel flowed from the plane after the crash, there were passengers in the back of the plane who evacuated via an emergency exit over the wing and “got covered in fuel,” according to the report.
Some of those people were also sprayed by fire retardant foam from a firefighting vehicle.
The flight was operated by Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air, which is one of the airlines that operates Delta Connection regional flights.
Delta issued a statement Thursday saying “we remain fully engaged as participants in the investigation led by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.”
“Out of respect for the integrity of this work that will continue through their final report, Endeavor Air and Delta will refrain from comment,” Delta said.
The captain of the flight had worked for the airline since 2007. It was his first flight of the day and his first flight in seven days.
The first officer had worked for Endeavor Air since January 2024, the report said. It was her fifth day of a five-day work cycle, and she had flown from Cleveland to Minneapolis before the flight to Toronto.
Both were certificated as airline pilots by the Federal Aviation Administration, the TSB noted.
The TSB report also detailed what happened during the Endeavor Air crash landing.
After the landing that damaged the plane, the aircraft “then began to slide along the runway,” according to the report. It rolled to the right “until it became inverted,” according to the report.
“A large portion of the tail, including most of the vertical stabilizer and the entire horizontal stabilizer, became detached during the roll,” the report says.
Credit: Bhandari, Uttam
Credit: Bhandari, Uttam
The plane veered off the runway into a snow-covered grass area and came to a rest on an intersecting runway. The right wing that had come off the plane “slid approximately 215 feet further” along the original runway the plane landed on.
Credit: Source: Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Credit: Source: Transportation Safety Board of Canada
The CRJ-900 in the crash had been manufactured in 2008 and was operated within its allowable weight-and-balance limitations, according to the TSB report.
The pilots flew the approach to the runway at a faster speed than typical because of wind gusts. Shortly before the plane landed, a meteorological report showed winds gusting to 35 knots.
While a hard landing is defined in company procedures as landing at a vertical descent rate greater than 600 feet per minute in certain conditions, the plane landed at a rate of descent of about 1,098 feet per minute, according to the report.
The TSB said the airline’s flight operations manual calls for pilots to increase pitch attitude of the plane to slow the descent rate at 20-30 feet above ground level, and that the pitch attitude at touchdown should be between 3 and 8 degrees.
Less than a second before touchdown, the pitch attitude of the CRJ-900 was 1 degree nose up, according to the report. When the plane hit the runway, it was at a 7.5 degree bank to the right.
Investigators have used a CRJ-900 simulator to conduct approaches and landings to help re-create the event and simulate conditions of the crash, according to the TSB.
The investigation will also look at certification of the landing gear and wing structure, as well as a metallurgical examination of the wing structure.
The evacuation will also be closely investigated, including cabin obstructions in the upside down plane, pilots' egress route through a cockpit ceiling escape hatch that ended up close to the ground, flight attendant training, coordination in emergencies and emergency response after the accident.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
The TSB of Canada is leading the investigation, while the United States' National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are assisting with the investigation.
But it’s the TSB of Canada that will release any information about the investigation, according to the NTSB.
The TSB notes in its preliminary report that information might change in the course of the investigation, and it says an investigation of this complexity is generally completed in 600 days — more than a year and a half.
“Accidents and incidents rarely stem from a single cause,” said TSB Chair Yoan Marier in a recorded video message Thursday. “They’re often the result of multiple complex, interconnected factors, many extending beyond the aircraft and its operation to wider systemic issues.”
He said the investigation now enters an examination and analysis phase “to understand what led to the accident and what are the underlying safety issues and risks.”
After the crash, Delta offered $30,000 to each passenger on board, which has “no strings attached and does not affect rights,” according to Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant.
The airline also faces multiple lawsuits filed by passengers who were on board.
A federal lawsuit filed by a passenger in Georgia after the crash seeks an unspecified damage total of more than about $200,000.
The Georgia complaint alleges that passenger Marthinus Lourens of Texas was “seriously and permanently injured” during the crash and evacuation, soaked in jet fuel and suffered “severe emotional distress and mental anguish.”
It also alleges the crew “offered inadequate assistance and instructions or directions” during the evacuation.
Andres Pereira, an attorney representing Lourens, in a statement Thursday cited details in the report on the hard landing and said: “This likely lead to the collapse of the right main landing gear that we all saw on the video of the crash. Our client has suffered significant injuries because of Delta’s negligence.”
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