‘Upside down and burning’: Several injured but none dead after Pearson plane crash

In a statement posted to Delta’s X page, company CEO Ed Bastian said he was thankful for all team members at the site, as well as first responders.

The flight operated by the airline’s subsidiary Endeavor Air was involved in what Flint called a “single aircraft accident” around 2:30 p.m. as it landed at the airport.

Videos posted to social media showed emergency crews hosing down the flipped-over aircraft with a damaged wing while passengers climbed out of emergency exits to the snowy tarmac. Gusting winds up to 65 km/h and blowing snow were reported at the airport around the time of the crash.

Flint spoke for less than five minutes and offered no details about a possible cause or what factors may have contributed to the crash in her update. She did not take questions from reporters.

Arrivals and departures at the airport resumed by 5 p.m., but delays were expected over the coming days as crash investigators did their work, Flint said. Two runways remained closed.

Flint said 17 people had been injured in the crash, and she did not know of any passengers with critical injuries.

The airport’s fire chief, Todd Aitken, later said 18 injured passengers had been sent to local hospitals.

In an update about an hour after Flint’s, he said it was “really important that we do not speculate” on the cause of the crash. “What we can say is the runway was dry and there was no crosswind conditions,” he said.

Aitken did not take questions from reporters, either.

The figures cited by the two officials Monday evening were both lower than the 19 people the regional paramedic service reported injured earlier in the day.

A spokesperson with the Peel Regional Paramedic Services said Monday afternoon that a child with critical injuries had been taken to Toronto’s SickKids hospital and two adults, also with critical injuries, had been airlifted to other local hospitals. All injuries were non-life-threatening, said Supt. Lawrence Saindon.

An audio recording from the Pearson airport tower shows Delta Air Lines flight 4819 was cleared to land shortly after 2 p.m. and the tower warned the pilots of a possible air flow “bump” in the glide path from an aircraft in front of it.

There were no further conversations with the Delta flight until the tower confirmed that a plane had crashed, with air controllers quickly redirecting traffic to accommodate the crash scene, according to audio pulled from LiveATC.net, a website that records and archives air traffic communications.

Audio conversations from ground crews at the airport recorded a burst of commotion from workers at about the same time, with someone yelling at another person to “get off the phone,” while another crew member described “a huge emergency.”

Several minutes later, air traffic control could be heard directing a medevac helicopter for landing, and noting there are people walking around the aircraft.

“Yeah, we’ve got it,” the medevac responds. “The aircraft … is upside down and burning.”

An aviation expert said it was very rare to see a transport-class airplane end up upside down in a crash during landing.

U.S. Marine Corps. veteran Colonel J. Joseph, who spent 29 years as a military aviator, said it is too early to speculate on what may have caused the crash but winds were notably strong in Toronto at that time.

Joseph, an aviation consultant based in Spanish Fort, Ala., said high winds would be challenging for pilots coming into Toronto. He added that the intact fuselage and survivors in the crash mean investigators have plenty of evidence to work with.

Delta Air Lines said in a social media post that affected passengers’ family members and loved ones could reach out to the airline for more information.

“The hearts of the entire global Delta family are with those affected by today’s incident at Toronto-Pearson International Airport,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in the post.

Tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows the same aircraft flew from Cleveland to Minneapolis earlier in the day, and that it was supposed to return to Minneapolis after landing in Toronto.

The plane had arrived at Pearson amid blowing snow following a winter storm that hit the Toronto region over the weekend.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it was deploying a team of investigators to Pearson airport and federal Transport Minister Anita Anand said she was closely following the “serious incident.”

Her U.S. counterpart, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, said inspectors from the Federal Aviation Administration were on their way to Toronto and the Canadian investigators would take the lead.

“I’ve been in touch with my counterpart in Canada to offer assistance and help with the investigation,” he said on social media.

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a social media post that provincial officials are in contact with the airport and local authorities and will provide help as needed. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow thanked first responders in her own post and expressed her relief that all passengers and crew on board the plane had been accounted for.

After the crash, flights in and out of Pearson airport were temporarily suspended.

A spokesman for Montreal-Trudeau International Airport said in the afternoon that it was preparing to receive aircraft originally bound for Toronto.

Eric Forest, a spokesman for the airport authority, said several diverted flights were expected in Montreal following the accident. “Our teams are in action to welcome them,” he said in an emailed statement.

In the hours following the crash at Pearson, confused passengers gathered at terminals amid mixed messaging from airport and airline staff.

At one point, an overhead announcement told everyone to proceed to the exit and baggage claim, but some workers were telling passengers to remain at their gates.

Departures and arrivals resumed as of 5 p.m., and airlines suggested passengers check the status of their flights.

Porter Airlines said on social media just before 5:20 p.m. that operations were “in the process of recovering.”

— With files from Sonja Puzic in Toronto, Sidhartha Banerjee in Montreal and Chuck Chiang in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 17, 2025.

Jordan Omstead and Rianna Lim, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

‘Upside down and burning’: Several injured but none dead after Pearson plane crash

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