A passenger jet flips and burns, but tragedy is averted this time

Boston Globe

19-02-2025

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As investigators from safety boards in Canada and the United States, as well as the regional jet's manufacturer, began combing over the wreckage, there was no official word on what caused the crash.
For the 80 people on board the flight from Minneapolis, the world lurched immediately after the wheels hit the ground on Monday afternoon.
In the blink of an eye, passengers found themselves hanging upside down, still strapped into their seats as jet fuel ran down the windows, said Pete Carlson, one of the passengers.
'The absolute initial feeling is just, 'Need to get out of this,'' Carlson told CBC, the Canadian public broadcaster.
But after a horrific string of fatal aviation accidents over the past two months, this crash proved different. The seat belts that passengers had strapped on to prepare for landing likely contributed to the lack of a more catastrophic outcome, aviation experts said.
Flight attendants and passengers were able to help each other out of the emergency exits and, with the assistance of firefighters, onto the snowy runway.
Delta said that 21 passengers were transported to local hospitals after the crash, as of Monday night. By Tuesday morning, all but two had been released, the airline said.
Cory Tkatch, commander of operations at the Peel Regional Paramedic Services, said that the injured passengers suffered 'back sprains, head injuries, anxiety, some headaches, nausea and vomiting due to the fuel exposure.'
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The crew of an air ambulance waiting to take off captured the moment of the crash-landing on film. The video, which spread on social media and was verified by The New York Times, may offer clues about what caused the plane to end up flipped over on its back.
Fox Flight, a Canadian air ambulance company based in Toronto, told the Times that the video had been filmed from one of its aircraft.
The jet, a Bombardier CRJ900 operated by a Delta subsidiary, Endeavor Air, was landing at 2:15 p.m. Eastern time after a seemingly normal flight along the busy route between Minneapolis and Toronto.
'The second that the wheels hit the ground, then everything happened,' said Pete Koukov, a professional skier from Colorado who was on the flight, in an interview Monday night. 'The next thing I know, we're sideways.'
The plane skidded on its right side, said Koukov, who was sitting at a window seat on the other side of the plane. He saw sparks and flames as the plane hit the ground.
When the plane came to a stop belly-up, he unbuckled and lowered himself down to the ceiling of the aircraft, which was now its floor, Koukov said. 'People were panicking.'
A video taken by Koukov shows a flight attendant helping passengers climb out of the plane, urging them to hurry and to leave their belongings behind.
Other videos from the scene showed flames and black smoke billowing from the plane as firefighters hosed it down. Photos taken after the crash showed most of the right wing of the jet shorn off, and the left wing damaged with the left landing gear still attached to the plane.
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The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will lead the investigation into the crash, officials have said, and the National Transportation Safety Board has said it was leading a team of American investigators to assist the Canadian authorities.
The ability of the crew to open the jet's doors, even while upside down and get passengers out quickly, was a testament to their training, according to aviation safety experts.
Carlson, who had a scrape visible on his head, said he saw a woman who had ended up under a seat and a mother and a boy who were sitting on the ceiling of the aircraft. He had no idea what state any of them were in, he said. 'My fatherly instinct and background as a paramedic kind of kicked in,' he said, making him focus on ensuring that they all got off the plane.
Even in those panicky moments, there was a palpable camaraderie as they escaped the plane, he said. 'Everyone on that plane suddenly became very close in terms of how to help one another, how to console one another,' he said. 'That was powerful.'
Jet fuel was running down the airplane's windows, Carlson said. And after leaving the plane, he and others tried to move as far from it as possible once he noticed that a wing was missing and heard sounds of an explosion.
Emerging from the upside-down plane, onto the tarmac and into the blowing snow Monday, Carlson said, 'it felt like I was stepping onto the tundra.'
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'I didn't care how cold it was,' he said. 'I didn't care how far I had to walk, how long I had to stand. All of us wanted to just be out of the aircraft.'
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