[Video] Footage shows how Delta flight out of Minneapolis carrying 80 people that crash-landed on its roof is missing its right wing
Yesterday, a Delta jet left Minneapolis for Pearson Airport in Toronto, Canada. The Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR crew cleared for landing just after 2 pm. It was cold and windy, with snowy gusts up to 40 mph. After a “forceful” touchdown, though, the airplane suddenly overturned before crash-landing on its roof near the start of its assigned runway.
All 80 people on board – 76 passengers and four Delta subsidiary crew members – survived. While 18 people were taken to local hospitals, including a pediatric patient, they reportedly suffered only minor injuries.
While the plane embarked from a U.S. state, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will lead the investigation into the cause of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board in the U.S. is sending a team to Toronto to assist, the Associated Press said.
One of the major questions is how the Delta flight’s right wing came off
“If one wing is missing, it’s going to have a tendency to roll over.” John Cox is CEO of Safety Operating Systems, an aviation safety consulting firm based in Florida. He flew for U.S. Air for 25 years. He’s also sat on former NTSB flight investigations. “We’ve seen a couple of cases of takeoffs where airplanes have ended up inverted, but it’s pretty rare,” he said.
The footage, shared on Reddit this morning, shows the Delta flight approaching the runway for landing. After hitting the ground, the right wing scrapes, sparking a fuel fire. A huge plume of black smoke fills the air behind the plane, which slides down the runway a bit before coming to a stop…on its roof.
Cox said that despite the wind, the plane should have been able to land with its wings intact. “So it was windy. But the airplanes are designed and certified to handle that,” he explained. “The pilots are trained and experienced to handle that.”
So whether the Delta crash – Pearson’s first since 2005 – was human error, a flaw with the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR, or an adverse weather event that caused the plane to flip is yet to be determined.
“Those are going to be central questions as to what happened to the wing and the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. They will be found…and the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will read them out and they will have a very good understanding of what actually occurred here.”
