Airliner Was Descending Fast Before It Flipped on Landing, Report Finds
A Delta Air Lines passenger jet that flipped over, burned and lost a wing after landing in Toronto last month was descending at what experts called an excessive speed when it touched down, according to a preliminary report from the Canadian authorities.
The report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, an independent agency, found that a warning about the plane's rapid descent had sounded just before it touched down, and the plane was dropping at nearly twice the rate that qualifies as a 'hard landing' in the flight operations manual of the Delta subsidiary, Endeavor Air, that was operating the jet.
A descent greater than 600 feet per minute is considered a 'hard landing,' according to the manual. Just before the crash, the plane was descending at 1,100 feet per minute, the report said.
When the plane landed, a part attached to the main landing gear on the right side broke, according to the report. In a matter of seconds, the jet rolled to its right, still skidding down the runway, the right wing snapped off, the plane burst into flames and it came to a stop upside down.
'It was descending much too fast,' said Jeff Guzzetti, a former U.S. accident investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board. 'It's possible that the rate of descent was so great that it exceeded the design stress limits of that landing gear.'
Despite the dramatic events, all 80 people on board, including 76 passengers and four crew members, were able to evacuate safely. After the plane was empty, there was an explosion near the left wing.
The report did not assign a cause for the Feb. 17 crash or the explosion, and the safety board said that its work was ongoing.
'Accident and incidents rarely stem from a single cause,' Yoan Marier, chairman of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said in a video statement.
The plane, a CRJ 900 made by Bombardier, had left Minneapolis and was arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport in windy conditions, which aviation safety experts said can complicate the landing process.
According to the safety board's report, the plane's air speed increased, apparently from a wind gust, less than 15 seconds before landing.
The pilot reduced thrust, which experts described as a typical response. But, less than three seconds before landing, the alert sounded warning that the plane was dropping too fast.
The plane's nose was also pointed upward at a one-degree angle, lower than the three to eight degrees recommended by the operations manual
'Everything went to hell in the last seconds,' said Ben Berman, a safety consultant who is also a former airline pilot and federal crash investigator in the United States. The conditions the pilots faced that day can make flying 'very difficult,' he added.
The captain of the plane, who was also a simulator instructor, had worked for Endeavor since 2007, and had 764 hours of flight time on the type of plane involved in the crash.
The first officer, who was flying the plane, had worked for the airline since January 2024 and had nearly 420 hours of experience with that aircraft model. Such experience is not unusual for pilots at smaller airlines like Endeavor, aviation experts said.
At least 21 people were injured in the crash. Passengers hung upside down in their seats after the crash, held up by their seatbelts, the report said.
Two days after the crash, Delta Air Lines offered each passenger $30,000, which the company said came with 'no strings attached.' Passengers have filed several lawsuits against the company in the United States, and Vincent Genova, a Toronto-based lawyer, said his firm has been retained by 12 Canadian passengers.
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