Investigators are trying to find out how all 76 passengers and 4 crew members aboard Delta Air Traces Flight 4819 survived after their airplane crash-landed at Toronto Pearson Worldwide Airport on Monday.
Regardless of the airplane skidding down the runway at over 100 mph, flipping over and dropping a wing, all 80 individuals onboard walked away with minimal accidents.
ABC Information spoke with aviation consultants who pointed to 3 key components that start to elucidate how the passengers survived the crash: the airplane’s touchdown gear, its wing and its fuselage.
Passengers go away a Delta Air Traces CRJ-900 jet after it crashed on touchdown at Toronto Pearson Worldwide Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Feb. 17, 2025, in a nonetheless picture from video.
Peter Koukov/by way of Reuters
‘We hit fairly exhausting’
The regional jet was a Canadian-built Bombardier CRJ-900. Consultants described the 16-year-old narrow-body airplane as a workhorse airplane for flights between midsized cities.
Delta Flight 4819, touring from Minneapolis to Toronto, was operated by Endeavor Air. Chris Finlayson used to fly that route for Endeavor.
“While you come into land and then you definitely roll out, it’s extremely straightforward to finish up pulling the nostril somewhat bit too excessive,” Finlayson stated, including that angling the airplane too excessive may cause “movement the place you find yourself driving your foremost touchdown gear into the runway.”
Brian Erickson, one of many 76 passengers, described experiencing a very exhausting touchdown, one thing consultants say might have triggered the collapse of the CRJ-900’s proper touchdown gear.
“After we hit down, it appeared like we hit fairly exhausting. And I believed, ‘OK, this can be a fairly tough touchdown, however I’ve had that earlier than.’ After which swiftly, the airplane began itemizing and turning to the suitable,” he stated.
John Nance, an ABC Information aviation analyst who examined video of the touchdown, stated that the angle of the touchdown positioned stress on the suitable touchdown gear, probably contributing to its collapse.
“The impression on the suitable foremost gear has pushed the gear previous its limitations, and within the vernacular, it is pushed the gear up by the wing,” Nance stated.
‘I might really really feel the warmth’
After the right-side touchdown gear appeared to break down, the airplane’s starboard wing started to scrape the runway and was ripped from the fuselage. Pictures taken after the crash clearly present the suitable wing cleanly snapped off the fuselage, whereas the suitable touchdown gear is ripped off the airplane.
Contained in the cabin, passengers described feeling the warmth emanating from a fireplace outdoors the fuselage as they skidded down the runway.
“It was simply extremely quick. There was a large firewall down the aspect. I might really really feel the warmth by the glass,” passenger John Nelson stated.
In keeping with a number of aviation consultants, the split-second lack of the wing – which holds half the jet’s gas – may need helped make sure the structural integrity of the cabin and the security of passengers.
“If you’re really experiencing such a tough impression that you understand the airplane is crashing, which might have been the case right here, then you definitely would need it to snap off, as a result of the choice is that your fuselage would have been structurally the weakest level, during which case it might have crunched and torsioned,” defined Ella Atkins, a Virginia Tech aerospace professor.
‘I used to be hanging by the seat belt’
Because the airplane slowed to a cease, passengers discovered themselves hanging upside-down within the cabin. They had been locked in place because of trendy seats and belts that may stand up to the pressure of the crash, consultants stated.
“I used to be hanging by the seat belt, that are very sturdy as a result of I am not somewhat fella. And, you understand, everyone was serving to their neighbor,” stated Erickson.
The ultimate issue that saved the lives of DL4819’s passengers was doubtless its well-trained crew and the quick response from airport firefighters, consultants stated.
“When you’ve gotten one thing that’s so irregular and so outdoors of what your psyche can sort of cope with, you go to your foundational data,” defined Finlayson. “And that is what that is what you do as an airline worker, you’ve gotten a robust foundational data, in order that approach when emergencies occur, you simply go to your intuition, and your instincts are to get individuals out safely.”
Many passengers reported the extraordinary scent of jet gas within the cabin. Nevertheless, by 2:21 p.m. – lower than 10 minutes after the crash touchdown – each passenger and crew member safely exited the airplane, escaping earlier than the gas reignited.
The Transportation Security Board of Canada is starting to uncover clues about the reason for the crash, although the investigation will doubtless take months to finish.