Investigation into plane crash at Pearson airport continues as black box recovered

Delays at Toronto’s Pearson airport continued Wednesday as investigators worked to determine the cause of the fiery crash landing of a Delta Air Lines plane.

All 76 passengers and four crew members survived Monday afternoon’s crash landing when the plane hit the tarmac and then tipped over, creating a fireball as its wing scraped along the ground before it rolled over and came to a stop in a cloud of smoke. Video posted to social media showed emergency crews dousing the plane as passengers climbed out of emergency exits and onto the snow-swept tarmac.

In an update on Wednesday, the airline said 20 of the 21 passengers initially sent to local hospitals had been released.

“Delta and Endeavor teams remain in Toronto and are co-operating fully as participants in the investigation,” the airline said in a statement. Endeavor, its subsidiary, was the operator of the flight from Minneapolis to Toronto. 

“Maintenance teams are standing by to remove the aircraft from the runway Wednesday once it’s safe to do so.”

A Toronto law firm specializing in aviation cases was retained by two Canadian passengers, said Vincent Genova, a partner at Rochon Genova. The firm also represents family members of passengers who were on the Ukraine International Airlines flight shot down over Tehran in 2020. 

Genova said both clients in the Delta crash had suffered injuries, including one who he said went back to the hospital Wednesday over a possible head injury when the seatbelts released. Genova said he was also working with an American firm retained by U.S. clients. 

“We’re probably going to start our own investigation to determine if there are any other parties that should be involved in potential litigation moving forward,” he said in an interview. 

Two of Pearson’s five runways, including the “busiest” in Canada, remain closed, said the airport’s duty manager Jake Keating. As a result, the airport had to put a cap on departures throughout the day and a similar step had been taken to manage arrivals. 

“This is put in place in an effort to sort of make sure that we’re not overwhelming the airfield and making sure that we’re maximizing our capabilities on the available runways that we have,” he said in an interview with TV station CP24 Wednesday morning. 

Once the wreckage is removed, Keating said delays would likely persist as the airport inspected the runway to make sure “everything is still in working order.”

Investigators with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Tuesday they had recovered the plane’s black box and sent it off for analysis, but it was too soon to say what led to the crash. 

Kit Darby, a U.S.-based veteran aviator and flight instructor, suggested in an interview with The Canadian Press that gusty winds and possible mechanical issues with the landing gear may have been contributing factors in Monday’s crash.