At least 18 people were injured after a plane crash at Canada’s Toronto Pearson International Airport, according to Fire Chief Todd Aitken. The Delta Air Lines flight with 80 people on board from Minneapolis ended upside down on the runway, and one passenger described hanging “like bats” inside the aircraft after it crashed.
Airport CEO Deborah Flint credited the “textbook response” of first responders for ensuring no lives were lost. However, she said two runways will remain closed for the next few days as investigators look into the cause of the crash.
The incident comes less than three weeks after an American Airlines plane collided midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter while on approach to Washington DC’s Reagan National Airport, and on the heels of deadly Jeju Air and Azerbaijan Airlines accidents in December.
Pearson International Airport firefighters work on an upside down Delta Air Lines plane, which was heading from Minneapolis to Toronto when it crashed on the runway, in Toronto, on Monday.
Eighteen injured passengers were transported to local hospitals after a Delta Air Lines plane crashed while landing at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, the airport’s Fire Chief Todd Aitken said during a news conference on Monday.
Hours earlier, the Toronto Pearson Airport CEO Deborah Flint said there were 17 injuries after the dramatic crash.
Aitken, at his news briefing appeared to be updating her number, saying that “one additional passenger” was transported to a hospital.
While airport fire chief Todd Aitken said it wasn’t appropriate to comment on the investigation into the crash at Toronto Pearson Airport, he did give an update on the conditions of the runway.
“What we can say is the runway was dry and there was no cross-wind conditions,” Aitken said.Authorities are still investigating the crash at Toronto Pearson, the airport’s fire chief said during a brief news conference Monday night.
“The cause of the crash is still under investigation and being led by the Transportation Safety Board. It’s not appropriate for us to comment at this time,” Airport Fire Chief Todd Aitken said.
Neither Aitken nor Waheed Butt, superintendent at Peel Regional Police, who also made a brief statement, took questions from reporters, who expressed frustration with shouted questions about the lack of information about the crash.
Two runways at the airport would remain closed while officials investigate the crash, the airport’s CEO said earlier Monday.
Authorities are still investigating the crash at Toronto Pearson, the airport’s fire chief said during a brief news conference Monday night.
Neither Aitken nor Waheed Butt, superintendent at Peel Regional Police, who also made a brief statement, took questions from reporters, who expressed frustration with shouted questions about the lack of information about the crash.
Two runways at the airport would remain closed while officials investigate the crash, the airport’s CEO said earlier Monday.
This post was updated with more details from the news conference.
"It’s amazing that we’re still here," passenger says, describing a fireball to left of the plane after crash
A passenger in the Toronto plane crash said “it’s amazing that we’re still here” after the plane turned upside down on the runway Monday.
John Nelson told CNN he wasn’t aware anything was wrong with the plane, calling it a typical flight between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Toronto, but said he did notice gusty winds and a lot of snow on the runway as they approached.
“When we hit, it was just a super hard — it hit the ground, and the plane went sideways,” Nelson said, adding that he saw “a big fireball” out of the left side of the plane.
Nelson was in row 10 of the aircraft, seated in front of the wing. Once the plane stopped, Nelson said people started yelling to get out.
“It was mass chaos,” he said.
Nelson and his seatmate were hanging upside down when the plane came to a stop. They unbuckled themselves and landed on the ceiling of the aircraft before making a beeline for the door, the air smelling like jet fuel.
“We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible,” Nelson said. “Even now I smell like jet fuel.”
“We were upside down hanging like bats,” passenger says of Toronto crash landing
Pete Koukov, a passenger on the plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport, said that he “didn’t know anything was the matter” until they hit the ground — which he described as a pretty hard landing.
“We hit the ground, and we were sideways, and then we were upside down hanging like bats,” Koukov told CNN’s Brianna Keilar.
Koukov said he was able to unbuckle and push himself to the ground, and then walk out of the plane, but some others needed help getting down from their seats.
“Just feeling lucky and happy I got to give the person I didn’t know sitting next to me a big hug, that we were OK, and see my friends who are here to pick me up from the airport and give them a big hug,” he said.
