US airline plane crashes in Canada, flips upside down while landing, 3 critical injuries but no reported fatalities

A Delta Airlines aircraft flipped upside down when landing at Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada.

The crash caused 17 injuries, including a child, but all 80 passengers and crew appear to have survived.

Upside down

On Feb. 17, a Bombardier CRJ900 jet aircraft operated by Delta Airlines was flying from Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States to Toronto, Ontario in Canada, with 76 passengers and four crew, according to Reuters.

A video of the aftermath was posted on social media by Jon Nelson, a passenger.

In the video, it shows firefighters attending to the scene, spraying foam onto the inverted jet.

One of the wings of the aircraft had been sheared off, with the status of the other wing unknown.

The plane’s vertical stabiliser had also been sheared off, along with at least one of the horizontal stabilisers.

The video also showed people attempting to exit the up-turned plane via an open doorway, existing in what looked like snowy and windy conditions on the tarmac.

Appear to be okay

Nelson can be heard saying “Most people appear to be okay”.

CBS News reported that this sentiment appeared to be largely correct, with 17 passengers taken to nearby hospitals.

Local paramedic services had initially said that two adults and a child were in critical condition, although the child was reported now in “good condition”.

The rest of the injuries were considered minor to moderate.

Reuters reported the President of Toronto Airport attributed the lack of deaths to the fast work of first responders.

Gusts of up to 60km/h

Weather at the airport was reported to be snowy, with high winds, CBS reports winds of 32 km/h but with gusts up to 60 km/h.

The airport was also said to be trying to catch up with missed flights as a snowstorm over the weekend had delayed several flights.

An expert that Reuters spoke to lauded the “engineering and technology, the regulatory background”, saying that it allowed for a system that allowed such a crash that would have previously been fatal.

The crash comes after a series of airline safety incidents in North America, including a passenger jet that collided with a military helicopter in Washington D.C., and another Delta Airlines jet that a Japan Airlines plane collided with at Seattle Airport in the U.S.

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Top image via John Nelson/Facebook