A preliminary report released last week revealed that the Delta plane that overturned and caught fire in Toronto last month was experiencing issues with its landing gear and was descending at an unusually high speed just moments before the crash. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which is still investigating the cause of the February 17 crash that resulted in 21 people being hospitalized, noted that a safety warning system in the jet had been activated approximately 2.6 seconds before the plane touched down.
The plane had departed from Minneapolis shortly before noon on February 17. At the time, Toronto’s Pearson Airport was grappling with high winds and freezing temperatures following a significant snowstorm. The preliminary findings indicated that the airspeed was 136 knots, or approximately 155 mph.
While the report does not provide a conclusive cause for the crash, it does note that the plane’s right main landing gear collapsed upon contact with the runway. The report detailed the sequence of events at touchdown, stating that the side-stay attached to the right main landing gear fractured, causing the landing gear to fold into the retracted position. This resulted in the wing root fracturing between the fuselage and the landing gear, leading to the wing detaching from the fuselage and releasing a cloud of jet fuel that ignited.
The exact sequence of these events is still under investigation. Despite the severity of the crash, all 80 passengers on board Delta Flight 4819, operated by Delta’s Endeavor Air subsidiary, survived the incident. The plane landed and flipped upside down at Canada’s largest airport.
Three critically injured passengers were transported to different hospitals. Footage from the scene showed the plane, which had been en route from Minneapolis, upside down on the snow-covered runway with its right wing missing as the flight crew evacuated passengers.
The report also provided information on the flight crew’s experience. The pilot had been employed by Endeavor Air since 2007 and had logged 3,570 hours of total flight time, while the first officer had 1,422 hours of total flight time.
In the aftermath of the incident, Delta CEO Ed Bastian commended the flight crew’s actions, stating that they were well-prepared and trained for such emergencies. “This is what we train for,” Bastian said in a CBS interview at the time. “We train for this continuously.”