Incident shuts down airport’s runways until at least Tuesday, says notice to aviation officials
A plane crashed and flipped on its back at Toronto’s Pearson airport Monday afternoon, injuring at least 15 passengers and closing down the airport’s runways.
Pearson airport’s runways are now closed until at least Tuesday, according to a notice to aviation officials.
The airport didn’t immediately provide further information on the nature of the emergency, but a photo submitted to CBC from a passenger shows a plane flipped on its back.
All passengers and crew are accounted for, the airport said in a post to X just before 3 p.m.
Peel Region paramedics told Radio-Canada that 15 passengers in total were hurt, after initially saying they believed eight had been injured.
Ornge Air Ambulance, Ontario’s air ambulance service, says a child was taken to Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children with critical injuries, while a man in his 60s and a woman in her 40s were also taken to Toronto hospitals with critical injuries.
Three air ambulance helicopters and two critical care land ambulances were dispatched to the scene, Ornge said.
WATCH | Video shows passengers disembarking from overturned plane at Pearson:
A superintendent with the Peel Region paramedic service says all of the other roughly 80 passengers and crew are accounted for and not believed to be injured at this time.
Const. Sarah Patten of the Peel Regional Police in Ontario told Reuters that most of the passengers were unharmed “but we’re still trying to make sure so we’re still on scene investigating.”
The airport said earlier in the day that it was expecting a busy day on Monday as airlines catch up after 22 centimetres of snowfall over the weekend, which caused a mass of delays and cancellations. Over 130,000 travellers were expected to board around 1,000 flights, it said in a post on Monday morning.
The Delta Air Lines plane, a Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR, has capacity for 95 seats and was built by Bombardier Inc., according to an aircraft registration posted on FlightAware, an online flight tracking platform. It has been registered to Delta Airlines since January 2010, according to the website.
In an online update posted Monday afternoon, Delta Air Lines said it was aware of the crash involving flight 4819, operated by subsidiary Endeavor Air.
“Our primary focus is taking care of those impacted,” the update said. “Delta is working to connect with customers traveling from, to or through YYZ who should also monitor the status of their flight via the Fly Delta app.”
Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand says she’s closely following the “serious incident” via a post on X.
The Transportation Board of Canada is sending a team to investigate the incident.
Mayor Olivia Chow posted on X Monday to say she was relieved all passengers and crew were accounted for.
“Thank you to the first responders, crew and airport staff for their quick actions and commitment to keeping everyone safe,” she said.
