No Way To Land A Plane

"We're in Toronto. We just landed. Our plane crashed. It's upside down."

"Fire department is on site. Were upside down."

"Everybody, most people appear to be okay. We're all getting out."

John Nelson, passenger video

 

"[The plane] impacted [the runway during landing, before parts of the aircraft separated and a fire ensued.]"

"As you can see here, the fuselage came to rest slightly off the right side of the runway, upside down, facing the other direction."

"At this point, it's far too early to say what the cause of this accident might be."

Ken Webster, investigator, Transportation Safety Board

 

"We are very grateful there was no loss of life and relatively minor injuries. [The quick response was due to the] heroic [first responders at the airport]."

"We are very focused on the care and the concern and the passengers and the crew, some of whom have already been reunified with their friends and their families. Others we have in a comfortable place right here at the airport in an environment where they're getting a lot of care and support from my staff."

Deborah Flint, president and CEO, Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA)

 

"[The landing was a ] forceful [event where all of a sudden everything went sideways]."

"The next thing I know, there was kind of a blink, I was upside down and still strapped in."

"It was cement and metal. The absolute initial feeling is just need to get out of this."

Peter Carlson, passenger on the Delta plane

Delta Air Lines plane at Toronto Pearson airport, Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025.  CTVNews

On Monday, around 3:00 p.m. a social media statement by Toronto Pearson International Airport announced an "incident upon landing", adding that all passengers and crew are "accounted for". "No deaths, thank goodness. That's why (flight) attendants tell everyone to fasten seat belts", a social media statement by Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish followed. A Delta Air Lines plane suffered a crash landing, on the snow-cleared runway.

 

The tower had earlier issued a warning to the pilots to be aware of the potential of an air flow bump in their glide path while the plane began its landing manoeuvres; a result of a preceding aircraft before its entry. The tower at Pearson airport's audio recording indicated that Delta Air Lines Flight 4819 was cleared to land at 2:10 p.m. No additional connection with the Delta flight was recorded and then the tower confirmed at 2:12 p.m. that a plane crashed on runway 23. 

The Meteorological Service of Canada reported that the airport was experiencing blowing snow and winds up to 51 kilometres per hour, gusting to 54 kph. The temperature registered -8.6 C. Immediately after the crash all flight traffic was interrupted, placed on  hold for both arrivals and departures. The New York Post citing flight records, identified the plane as a Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR. Initially there was no word of possible injuries among the passengers debarking.

 

First responders work at the Delta Air Lines plane crash site at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ont., Monday. (Arlyn McAdorey/Reuters)

 

The rear of the plane was sprayed by an emergency services truck. The Delta Air Lines plane was shown in images posted to social media upside down, with its landing gear pointing skyward, a wing torn completely off, smoke rising from the rear, while passengers were leaving the tarmac. The plane, arriving from Minneapolis, had departed at 11:47 a.m. Outside the plane passengers were moving away from their disabled flight.

 

Passengers walked on the ceiling before managing to evacuate out of the overwing door and the front door. The side of the plane was etched with skid marks close to the front door. The wing rests about 40 metres distant from the plane. Passengers that were injured were taken to hospital, around 20 of them, 17 of whom were eventually released, having suffered minor injuries. Several remain in hospital with more serious injuries, one of whom is a child, taken to Toronto's Sick Kids Hospital. 

A woman in her 40s was sent to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre wth critical injuries, while a man in his 60s was airlifted to St. Michael's Hospital. Critically injured people reported by Ornge Air Ambulance services added more people than those identified by a local paramedic service spokesperson who spoke of one individual with critical, non-life-threatening injuries and seven others with mild to moderate injuries.

 

Seats may have helped save lives, former transportation safety board investigator says: CBC

 

The Best-Laid Plans Stumble Against Clumsy COVID Precautions

"We wake up to 15 emails, telling 14 of the kids they need to go get tested."

"The kids can't do it themselves, as they speak Arabic and Hebrew, but even crazier, there's no way to make an appointment."

Trip organizer

"These kids have seen some of the worst horrors in life."

"Instead of enjoying their time here they are forced to the unnecessary tests so this government can continue their COVID theatre."

"There was no science shared to test fully vaccinated travellers, no science shared to pause the testing, and no science shared about re-establishing the random testing."

"For cases like this it's truly a travesty."

Canadian Member of Parliament Melissa Lantsman

"What they've done is turn a minor inconvenience at the airport and turn it into a huge inconvenience that swallows your whole next day."

"It [the email instructing the randomly-chosen traveller they must arrange for COVID testing after arrival in Canada] doesn't really give you any information about how to pick up the kit, it just gives  you an address."

Charles Moscoe business traveller

Pearson Airport, Toronto

 

Canada's largest, busiest airport in its most populous city -- Pearson International, in Toronto -- has had more cancelled flights than any other airport anywhere in the world. It has been named as the worst post-COVID airport globally for its intractable COVID measures, a result of federal government mandates, with the lengthiest delays, along wth the most cancelled flights. People end up waiting full days for connectng flights, they sleep on the airport floors, luggage is lost, frustration  and helplessness is universal.

This, on top of an utterly personally intrusive and quite useless charade called ArriveCAN which must be registered online, giving information on passport, inoculations, state of health, destination, return, and other details. When returning to Canada from points abroad, Canada Border Agents either accept a printout of the completed online form or use it to check the online registration before a traveller is waved through.

A charitble group in Canada -- whose name has been withheld for fear of backlash or unwanted hostile attention in the current atmosphere prevailing in Canada of rampant antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments fuelled by an active slander campaign by 'Palestinian rights' groups and their supporters -- arranged for 33 Israeli children, both Jewish and Arab who had been victims of trauma through exposure to terrorist attacks, to come to Canada as a group for a vacation.

This group of summer campers, all of them victims of terrorist violence, spent the first day of their sponsored trip to Canada trying to meet a deadline imposed for a COVID test. Their visit to Wonderland, and Niagara Falls, scheduled and paid for, had to be cancelled when close to half of the 33 were selected as candidates for random testing. The federal government's recently adjusted rules call for off-site random testing for international arrivals.

Anyone unfortunate enough to have been selected for random screening has until midnight of the day following receipt of the email notification to complete the tests. The children had been billeted all over the Greater Toronto Area with volunteer families. Organizers had no option but to drive to various areas around the sprawling city in an effort to assist the children in meeting the deadline.

The organizers helped the childen fill out paperwork and drove them to a LifeLabs location that agreed to test them all. All 33 of the child visitors had tested negative for COVID-19 before boarding their Air Canada flight from Tel Aviv to Toronto. Vaccinated international travellers arriving in Canada are susceptible to random testing requirements. In its original form, such randomly selected travellers were tested on-site at the airport.

 

In its newer iteration, the program informs randomly selected travellers by email shortly following arrival that arrangements to be tested off-site through official testing locations must be arranged. Failing to comply risks hefty fines. The situation has led to further headaches for returning travellers who now face a deadline for compliance, if selected.

The experience of Charlie Moscoe appears typical. On his way home from the airport he was notified by email of the requirement to arrange for a test. A choice was offered of either attending an Ontario LifeLabs location or to arrange for a test kit to be delivered to his home. He opted to order a testkit delivered to his home. A week later he is still awaiting its arrival, long past the mandatory testng time.

Giving him little choice but to take time off work to attempt to have the testing done at LifeLabs. 

Image via Getty