Investigators say a Delta jet descended too quickly before Toronto crash last month
The Delta Air Lines regional jet that crash-landed and flipped over at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport last month was descending too fast, according to Canadian investigators.
In releasing its preliminary report on the February 17th crash Thursday, Canada’s Transportation Safety Board noted that in the seconds before touching down, the CRJ 900 was descending at a rate of more than 1,100 feet per minute, which is nearly twice as fast as it should’ve been descending.
All 80 people on board the plane survived the crash, even though it flipped over and caught fire as it slid down the snowy runway. Twenty-one people were injured, two of them seriously.
The flight, operated by Endeavor Air under the Delta Connection brand name, had taken off from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport at 11:47 a.m. CT with 76 passengers and four flight crew members on board. “The flight proceeded uneventfully” towards Toronto, according to the TSB.
In the final seconds before touching down at Toronto’s Pearson Airport at 2:12 p.m. ET in strong, gusty winds, the TSB report shows that the plane was descending at a rate of more than 1,100 feet per minute. The report notes the aircraft’s operating manual states that a hard landing is defined as “[a] landing at a vertical descent rate greater than 600 ft/min.”
In addition, the plane was banking at an angle of 7.1° to the right, and the pitch attitude was 1° nose up.
The TSB report says that as the plane touched down, the right landing gear fractured and retracted. The right wing then scraped the ground and broke off at the fuselage, releasing a cloud of jet fuel that caught fire as the airplane overturned and moved down the runway.
The TSB of Canada’s report does not explain why the plane was descending faster than it should have, nor what role the strong winds may have had in the crash. Much of the information in the preliminary report comes from the aircraft’s flight data recorder. No information from the cockpit voice recorder was released.
“We remain fully engaged as participants in the investigation led by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada,” Delta said in a statement to NPR. “Out of respect for the integrity of this work that will continue through their final report, Endeavor Air and Delta will refrain from comment.”
The final investigative report is expected in about a year.
The math behind the war: Can Israel’s air defense keep up against Iranian attacks?
There's a specific kind of math that could determine just how much longer the war can go — how many long-range missiles Iran has versus how many missile interceptors Israel has to shoot them down.
Questions remain about the Minnesota rampage. Anti-abortion extremism may shed light
The suspect in the killing of a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband texted, "Dad went to war last night,' evoking the language of the far right, Christian anti-abortion movement.
Reporters for Voice of America and other U.S. networks fear what’s next
Journalists who have risked their freedom to report for Voice of America and its sister news outlets wonder what happens to them now that the Trump administration has gutted their parent agency.
Federal judge declines to order Trump officials to recover deleted Signal messages
The watchdog group American Oversight had asked a federal judge to order top national security officials to preserve any messages they may have sent on the private messaging app Signal.
Welcome to summer: U.S. braces for first significant heat wave of the new season
For many Americans, high humidity will make it feel in the triple digits. The National Weather Service is urging people to prepare to protect themselves from the dangers of extreme heat.
Trump says he’s close to ‘a Deal’ with Harvard, as judge grants injunction
Trump's Truth Social comments came as a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction that would continue blocking the president's efforts to bar international students from attending Harvard.