Delta plane flipped upside-down in Toronto came down too fast in high winds, report reveals
A report into the cause of a Delta plane that crashed in Toronto has outlined the moments before the jet flipped.
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The Delta plane that crash-landed and flipped upside-down last month descended too quickly in high winds, and then the landing gear collapsed when it touched down and overturned, investigators have revealed.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which is still probing the cause of the February 17 crash that saw 21 people hospitalised, said a safety warning system had gone off in the jet about 2.6 seconds before touchdown, indicating a “high rate of descent.”
At the time, Toronto’s Pearson Airport had been dealing with high winds and frigid temperatures in the wake of a major snowstorm.
“Given the reported wind gusts, the approach was flown at 149 knots,” but the plane’s “sink rate” was too high, according to the initial findings.
The report, which doesn’t provide a final cause for the crash, added that the jet’s right main landing gear collapsed after making contact with the runway.
“At touchdown, the following occurred: the side-stay that is attached to the right [main landing gear] fractured, the landing gear folded into the retracted position, the wing root fractured between the fuselage and the landing gear, and the wing detached from the fuselage, releasing a cloud of jet fuel, which caught fire,” the report stated.
“The exact sequence of these events is still to be determined by further examination of the fracture surfaces.”
Despite dozens of injured passengers, every one of the 80 people on board survived when Delta Flight 4819, which was being operated by the airline’s Endeavor Air subsidiary, landed and flipped belly-up at Canada’s largest airport.
Footage of the aftermath showed the plane, which was en route from Minneapolis, upside down in the middle of the snow-covered runway with its right wing missing as the flight crew evacuated passengers.
Meanwhile, the report into the incident also shed light on the experience of crew members.
The jet’s pilot had worked for Endeavor Air since 2007 and had 3570 hours of total flight time, while the first officer had 1422 hours of total flight time, the report stated.
It comes after Delta CEO Ed Bastian praised the actions of the flight crew in the wake of the incident, saying they were experienced and trained for such ordeals.
“This is what we train for,” Bastian said in a CBS interview at the time. “We train for this continuously.”
This story originally appeared in The New York Post.
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