THE airport where a Delta flight touched down on a snowy runway, flipped over, and burst into flames saw another horrific crash just two decades prior.
The Toronto Pearson International Airport is under intense scrutiny after 21 people were hurt in Monday’s disturbing wreck that was caught on video.
ReutersA Delta Air Lines-operated CRJ900 aircraft crashed on the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, on Monday[/caption]
AFPThe airport saw another crash on August 5, 2005, when the Air France Flight 538 plunged to the ground[/caption]
AFPAn investigator in the wreckage of the 2005 accident[/caption]
AFPThe Air France flight landed in a ravine near the Toronto runway[/caption]
Eerie footage captured the moment the aircraft carrying 70 people touched down on the snow-covered runway and rapidly skidded out of control.
A burst of fire exploded from the plane, and it was turned fully upside down before finally stopping.
However, no one on the flight died or suffered life-threatening injuries.
The freak accident calls to mind an eerily similar plane crash at the same airport nearly 20 years ago.
On August 2, 2005, an Air France flight from Paris crashed at the Toronto Pearson Airport in the middle of a heavy rain and lightning storm.
The plane couldn’t stop on the slippery runway in time and smashed into a ravine 200 feet off the runway before it burst into flames.
All 297 passengers and 12 crew members on the plane survived the crash.
After being evacuated from the plane, 10 passengers and two crew members suffered critical injuries.
Former Canadian Minister of Transport Jean Lapierre said the non-fatal outcome was a “miracle.”
After escaping from the wreckage, one horrified passenger opened up about the fears racing through his mind during the crash.
“The most difficult [part] was in the plane was rolling,” Oliver Dubois told CBC at the time.
“We thought we would die.”
‘PEOPLE WERE PANICKING’
A survivor of Monday’s crash said the flight to Canada had gone without a hitch, but everything changed the moment they touched the runway.
“The second that the wheels hit the ground, then everything happened,” Pete Koukovk, a 28-year-old professional skier from Colorado, told the New York Times.
“The next thing I know, we’re sideways.”
Once the plane came to a stop, Koukovk unbuckled his seatbelt and jumped to the ground as he heard people “panicking” all around.
Another passenger Peter Carlson, who was traveling to Toronto for a paramedic conference, described crashing onto the ceiling of the plane when he unlocked his seatbelt.
The traveler watched in horror as jet fuel dripped down the burning plane’s windows, but bravely chose to stay in the craft and help others.
He and another man got a mother and her young son out of their seats before dropping out of the doors and onto the tarmac.
“Snow was blwoing and it felt like I was stepping onto tundra,” he told CBC.
“I didn’t care how cold it was, didn’t care how I had to walk, how long I had to stand. All of us just wanted to be out of the aircraft.”
CRASH MYSTERY
Of the 21 people who were hurt, 19 have already been released from the hospital.
The plane was on Delta Connection Flight 4819 and was being operated by Endeavor Air, which is a regional airline under the Delta umbrella.
The night the plane took to the skies, several flights had been delayed or canceled due to high winds, frigid temperatures, and drifting snowstorms.
Officials are still investigating the latest flight nightmare, which came just weeks after another plane plunged into the Potomac River outside Washington DC.
Sixty-seven people died in that horrifying crash in January – which was caused by a mid-air collision between the passenger plane and a Black Hawk.
And in December, a Jeju Air flight crashed in South Korea and an unimaginable 179 people were killed.
Delta’s CEO said he is going to support the Endeavor crew members as they continue to investigate the tragedy.
“We’ll do everything we can to support them and their families in the days ahead, and I know the hearts, thoughts and prayers of the entire Delta community are with them,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said.
“We are grateful for all the first responders and medical teams who have been caring for them.”
APOfficials are still investigating why the Delta flight crashed[/caption]
‘Freak accident’ is something ‘from the movies’
Scott Keyes, founder and chief flight expert at the Going travel app, shared insights with The U.S. Sun following the Delta plane crash at Torotno Pearson International Airport on February 17.
Regarding the cause of the Toronto plane crash:
“It’s too early to speculate what precisely happened, I’m afraid. It’s certainly safe to call it a “freak accident” and that may be understating just how rare a scene like this is. An inverted passenger plane is something moviegoers saw in Denzel Washington’s 2012 film Flight—not something we see in reality until today.”
Regarding smaller jets having been involved in recent crashes:
“While it’s certainly unexpected to have two major incidents in a row take place on small aircraft, it’s not totally shocking. Around one-third of commercial aircraft in the US are smaller planes like the Delta CRJ seen today. We’ll wait and see for the investigators’ report, but given the differing circumstances of Toronto and DCA, I think it’s highly unlikely that this is a built-in aircraft issue similar to what we saw with successive 737 MAX crashes.”
Regarding air travel safety:
“You are far, far more likely to get in an accident on your drive to the airport than on your flight from the airport. On a per-mile basis, your mortality risk in a car is over 100 times higher than in a passenger plane. The fact that incidents like these grab so much attention is because of their rarity.”
— Scott Keyes, founder and chief flight expert at the Going travel app
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