A Delta flight flipped upside down while landing at Toronto’s main airport

On Tuesday, Delta said that of the 21 people injured in the crash, 19 had been released from hospital. 

A Delta Air Lines jet flipped with 80 people on board as it landed at a Toronto airport Monday, leaving emergency crews scrambling to reach the upside-down aircraft.

All passengers and crew were “accounted for,” Toronto Pearson International Airport said. Delta said 21 injured people were taken to hospitals, 19 of whom were released as of Tuesday morning.

Photos on X appeared to show the plane upside down and at least one wing missing. More photos and videos of the wreck trickled out later. Delta said there were 76 passengers and four crew on board.

The wreckage of Delta Air Lines Flight 4819 from Minneapolis overturned at Toronto Pearson International Airport. 

Ornge, an air ambulance service in Ontario, told B-17 that three people were transported to Toronto hospitals with critical injuries, including a child, a man in his 60s, and a woman in her 40s.

The Bombardier CRJ900, which was flying from Minneapolis as Flight 4819, was operated by Delta’s wholly-owned regional subsidiary, Endeavor Air.

“Everything just kind of went sideways,” Pete Carlson, a passenger on the flight, told Canada’s national broadcaster CBC.

“One minute you’re landing, kind of waiting to see your friends and your people, and the next minute you’re physically upside down,” he said.

Carlson described the sound of “cement and metal” as the plane crashed.

Another shot of the wreckage of Delta Flight 4819 at Toronto Pearson Airport. 

“Our most pressing priority remains taking care of all customers and Endeavor crew members who were involved,” said Delta CEO Ed Bastian.

“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,” he added. “We are grateful for all the first responders and medical teams who have been caring for them.”

Flights to Toronto Pearson were halted due to the emergency but resumed at 5 p.m. local time. More than 330 flights were delayed on Monday, and nearly 400 flights were canceled, per FlightAware, a flight-tracking website.

US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said in an X post that investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration were traveling to Toronto and that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada would lead the investigation.

A Peel Regional Police spokesperson said the Greater Toronto Airports Authority was also investigating.

Canada’s transport minister Anita Anand thanked first responders and airport staff in an X post. In an earlier post, she said she had spoken to Duffy about the crash and that the FAA was sending investigators to support the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

A bad few months for aviation safety

The Delta incident comes two and a half weeks after an American Airlines flight collided with a military Black Hawk helicopter over Washington D.C., killing 67 people.

The event in Toronto highlights the ongoing concerns over aviation safety. Despite the incident happening in Canada, the plane was operated by a US airline regulated by the FAA.

On Monday, the Trump Administration fired hundreds of FAA staff, according to the workers’ union, including people in the safety department.

Among those fired was Jason King, whose work directly involved addressessing safety concerns, the Washington television station, WUSA, reported.

He said his team’s work included investigating the midair collision over D.C.

The Trump Administration’s move to fire hundreds of FAA employees follows the fatal American Airlines crash in January. 

The Delta and American flights join a string of aviation safety events since December. An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer plane crashed on Christmas Day in Kazakhstan, with some blaming Russian air defenses. Thirty-eight people died.

A few days later, a Boeing 737 operated by the South Korean budget carrier Jeju Air crashed in South Korea. 179 people died, and two people survived.

A small general aviation plane crashed in Pennsylvania a few days after the American accident, killing six on the plane and one on the ground.

And on February 6, an Alaskan regional airline crashed in western Alaska, killing 10 people.