A Delta Air Lines passenger jet that flipped over, burned, and lost a wing after landing in Toronto last month was descending at what experts termed an excessive speed when it touched down, according to a preliminary report from Canadian authorities.
The report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, an independent agency, indicated that a warning about the plane’s rapid descent had activated just before landing. The aircraft was dropping at nearly twice the rate considered a “hard landing” in the flight operations manual of Endeavor Air, the Delta subsidiary operating the jet.
A descent greater than 600 feet per minute qualifies as a “hard landing,” according to the manual. Just before the incident, the plane was descending at 1,100 feet per minute, the report stated.
Upon landing, a component attached to the main landing gear on the right side broke. This led to the jet rolling to its right while skidding down the runway, resulting in the right wing snapping off, the plane bursting into flames, and coming to a stop upside down.
“It was descending much too fast,” stated Jeff Guzzetti, a former U.S. accident investigator. “It’s possible that the rate of descent was so great that it exceeded the design stress limits of that landing gear.”
Despite the dramatic circumstances, all 80 individuals on board, including 76 passengers and four crew members, managed to evacuate safely. Following the evacuation, an explosion occurred near the left wing.
The report did not assign a definitive cause for the February 17 crash or the subsequent explosion, noting that the safety board's investigation is ongoing.
“Accidents and incidents rarely stem from a single cause,” remarked Yoan Marier, chairman of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, in a video statement.
The aircraft, a CRJ 900 manufactured by Bombardier, had departed from Minneapolis and was approaching Toronto Pearson International Airport amid windy conditions, which aviation safety experts noted can complicate landings.
According to the safety board’s findings, the plane’s airspeed increased, likely due to a wind gust, less than 15 seconds before landing. The pilot responded by reducing thrust, a typical reaction. However, less than three seconds before touchdown, a warning alert indicated that the plane was descending too rapidly.
The aircraft’s nose was also angled upward at a one-degree pitch, lower than the three to eight degrees recommended by the operations manual.
“Everything went to hell in the last seconds,” commented Ben Berman, a safety consultant and former airline pilot. He noted that the conditions faced by the pilots that day could make flying “very difficult.”
The captain, who was also a simulator instructor, had been with Endeavor since 2007 and had accrued 764 hours of flight time on the aircraft type involved. The first officer, who was piloting the plane, had joined the airline in January 2024 and had nearly 420 hours of experience with that model, which is not uncommon for pilots at smaller airlines.
At least 21 individuals sustained injuries in the crash, with passengers reportedly hanging upside down in their seats, restrained by their seatbelts.
Two days after the incident, Delta Air Lines offered each passenger $30,000 with “no strings attached.” Passengers have since filed multiple lawsuits against the airline in the United States, with a Toronto-based lawyer stating that his firm has been retained by 12 Canadian passengers.