Delta passenger records evacuation after Toronto crash
A passenger recorded the moments as people exited a Delta Air Lines plane after it flipped over while landing in Canada.
As investigators work to uncover what caused a Delta Air Lines regional jet to flip on its roof while landing at Canada’s Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday, passengers have taken to social media to share their experiences of the incident.
The passenger jet was carrying 76 passengers and four crew members from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Toronto when it crash landed around 2:15 p.m. local time, Delta said in a statement, sending 21 people to the hospital with injuries. Two adults and one child were classified as being more seriously injured and were transported to trauma centers and a children’s hospital by air ambulance.
Nineteen of those hospitalized were released by Tuesday morning, Delta told USA TODAY.
One such video, originally shared to Instagram by @eggxit, gives the passenger perspective to what that evacuation looked like.
The video begins inside the aircraft, where an employee of the flight is directing passengers to “leave everything” as she ushers them toward the exit. She helps another passenger climb out before the cameraman crawls through the door onto the snowy tarmac below.
Walking a few feet from the plane, the cameraman pans the camera back toward the CRJ-900 regional jet, which is charred and stained black as it rests topside down on the frozen ground. More people are helped out of open doors on the side of the aircraft as firefighters spray the wreckage with water from a nearby truck.
Shocking videos circling online show the plane coming in for a landing and touching the ground at high speed, causing flames and a dark plume of black smoke to erupt as it slides down the snowy runway before flipping upside down and screeching to a stop.
Luckily, most of the plane’s occupants were well enough to self-evacuate from the upturned airliner, according to Toronto Airport Fire Chief Todd Aitken. Most were able to exit the wreckage before first responders made it onto the scene.
Once paramedics arrived, the majority of injuries were common complaints like back pain, head injuries and headaches, anxiety, vomiting, and nausea due to fuel exposure.
The scene is surprisingly calm considering the circumstances – perhaps thanks to the same sense of gratitude expressed by the video’s original Instagram caption that reads, “Being alive feels pretty cool today.”
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, an agency of the Canadian government, will be in charge of leading the investigation into the cause of the crash, according to the FAA.
