Toronto Pearson Airport CEO says crews “mounted a textbook response” to Delta plane crash

The CEO of Toronto Pearson Airport applauded the heroism of Delta Air Lines Flight 4819’s crew members after Monday’s crash, when the aircraft flipped over while landing and subsequently started on fire.

Eighty people, including four crew members, were aboard the CRJ-900 aircraft, which was arriving from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

Delta announced on Tuesday morning that 19 of the 21 passengers injured in the crash had been released from the hospital. Two passengers are still listed in critical condition. 

Deborah Flint, president and CEO of Toronto Pearson Airport, thanked the flight crew, and all flight attendants and crew members “across the industry,” during a press conference on Tuesday.  

“The crew of Delta Flight 4819 heroically led passengers to safety, evacuating a jet that had overturned on the runway on landing that was amidst smoke and fire,” Flint said. “Thank you for all that you do every day and every night in service of safe air travel.”

Flint says the crew, airport emergency workers and first responders “mounted a textbook response,” arriving just minutes following the crash. 

Corey Tkatch, commander of operations for Peel Regional Paramedic Services, said during Tuesday’s press conference the nearly two dozen passengers who were hurt suffered injuries ranging from back sprains to head injuries, anxiety and “nausea and vomiting due to the fuel exposure.”

Flint says the crash occurred during “an operational recovery day” for the airport, which saw hundreds of flight cancellations this weekend due to heavy snowfall. More than 1,000 flights were scheduled on Monday. Flights resumed at the airport less than three hours after the crash.

Twenty members of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which is leading the investigation, are currently at the airport and are being assisted by members of the U.S.’s National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA, according to Flint.

Crews with Mitsubishi, which makes the CRJ-900, are also on site along with a Delta crew during the investigation. Flint says two runways will remained closed for the next 48 hours or so as investigators continue their work. At that point, the aircraft will be removed from the scene.

Flint directed questions concerning the role weather conditions may have played in the crash to the Transportation Safety Board, and specifics about passenger injuries to Delta.