Delta plane crashes at Toronto Pearson, arrivals & departures impacted

This story was updated on Monday, February 17 at 9:32 p.m. EST

A Delta Air Lines plane crash-landed at Toronto Pearson airport (YYZ) on Monday (Feb. 17), flipping completely upside down.

According to a statement the airport posted to its X account, the CRJ-900 jet was arriving from Minneapolis.

“Emergency teams are responding. All passengers and crew are accounted for,” the airport wrote.

Images from the scene show the plane upside down on the airport runway.

Multiple people have sustained injuries, according to paramedics that spoke to CP24. Reports say that 17 of the 80 people on board have been injured. 

Ornge Air Ambulance, Ontario's air ambulance service, says a child was taken to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children with critical injuries, while a man in his 60s and a woman in her 40s were also taken to Toronto hospitals with injuries. No casualties have been reported as of this time.

Earlier reports indicated that the airport's runways would be closed until at least Tuesday, but according to a new update posted by the airport on X, departures and arrivals have resumed at Pearson as of 5 p.m. EST.

"When we hit, it was super hard"

The flight was operated by Endeavor Air under the Delta Connection brand. According to a statement posted to Delta's website, the crash occurred at roughly 3:30 p.m. ET. 

"Initial reports were that there are no fatalities. Several customers with injuries were transported to area hospitals. Our primary focus is taking care of those impacted," the airline wrote. "Delta is working to connect with customers traveling from, to or through YYZ who should also monitor the status of their flight via the Fly Delta app."

The flight was carrying a total of 80 people – 76 passengers and four crew, Delta said. The plane was a Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR, has capacity for 95 seats and was built by Bombardier Inc., according to an aircraft registration posted on FlightAware. It has been registered to Delta since January 2010, the website says.

John Nelson, a passenger who was on the flight, spoke to CNN about the incident. 

"It was a typical flight from Minneapolis to Toronto. And we were coming in, and I did notice the winds were super gusty. The snow had kinda blown over the runways. So coming it was routine but it was noticeable that the runways were in kind of a weird condition," he said.

"And when we hit, it was super hard...we hit the ground and the plane went sideways and I believe we skidded on our side and flipped over on our back. Where we ended up there was a big fireball on the left side of the plane." 

Nelson said that after the plane went sideways, he was "upside down" and that "everybody else was there as well." 

"Thankfully everybody was okay. We tried to get off as quickly as possible. And shortly thereafter, there was another explosion, but luckily, the firefighters got out of there," he said.

Deborah Flint, president and CEO of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, which manages Pearson, shared during a press conference on Monday evening that there were 17 injured passengers who "were quickly taken to local area hospitals."

"At this time, we do not know of any of those passengers having critical injuries. We immediately halted further arrivals and departures on our remaining three runways," said Flint. "Those runways were reopened at approximately 5 p.m. the other runways are remaining to serve the investigation, which will be carrying forward for the rest of tonight and into the next several days."

Flint praised what she called the "textbook" response of emergency responders at the airport in responding to the crash.

Further delays expected 

Air Canada posted an update to its X account on Monday, saying that the crash will impact its flights to and from Toronto Pearson. 

"Air Canada customers travelling to or from Pearson are advised to check the status of their flight before going to the airport," the airline wrote. 

The incident adds to an already-disrupted network of airline schedules as Toronto Pearson recovers from a weekend of heavy snowfall.

The airport said earlier that it was expecting a busy day on Monday as airlines catch up. Some 130,000 travellers were expected to board around 1,000 flights, Pearson Airport wrote in a post on Monday.

This is a developing story. 

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