Delta plane flipped over on landing in Canada

[GariYaMoshi]

Well this is a new one for commercial aviation. Somehow Delta flight 4918 flipped over while landing in Toronto. Reports are 8 people injured, with 3 critical. Around 80 on board the flight.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-pearson-overturned-airplane-1.7461227

 

[Maverickstation]

We had planned one of our long weekends to Toronto, that said the airline that we use, Porter, started to send out
advisories on Friday afternoon warning of bad weather in Toronto, and offering fee free re-scheduling.

Porter service to and from Boston uses Toronto City Airport, also known as Billy Bishop, and although they ran most of their schedule, with delays, we are glad that we moved up our trip.

Ken

 

[west point]

I cannot imagine. A snap roll upon landing? Interesting. My questions would be.
1. Landing behind a heavy jet?
2. Was the wind slightly off the centerline of runway that may have allowed wake turbulence to remain over runway? Only if landing behind another jet. A light quartering tailwind is the receipt for problems.
3. If not. what was the wind?
4. Injured baby probably was being held by someone and flew out of holder's hands.

Even military has had very few upside down landings. Now takeoffs another story. The P-51s did have a few flips on takeoffs because pilots applied full power too quickly on takeoff rolls. Pilots did not firewall the throttle. Slow and sure even with close in aerial threats.

 

[Tlcooper44]

Gosh it’s been a rough 3 months for aviation.

Re. the recent and thankfully non-fatal crash at Pearson Airport, a friend of mine and my dads (the three of us fly quite often, and both my dad and I received some of our PC-12 training from him) wrote a thoughtful response. He used to fly for Delta on the Toronto route and offered his thoughts. His name is Philip Greenspun. It’s a good read.

https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2...jKwmKYDT4wUzo_T2FY_aem_HyE0FhQVytYrGLM7J-5jFg

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Gosh it’s been a rough 3 months for aviation.

None of the incidents seem to be connected as of yet. I’m still flying as if nothing changed and the airports I’m visiting are as packed as ever. That said I think cutting down on nighttime helicopter traffic in the middle of a major flight path with forced slot increases and safety waivers is probably warranted.

 

[Tlcooper44]

None of the incidents seem to be connected as of yet. I’m still flying as if nothing changed and the airports I’m visiting are as packed as ever. That said I think cutting down on nighttime helicopter traffic in the middle of a major flight path with forced slot increases and safety waivers is probably warranted.

I don’t believe any of them are connected, but that doesn’t make it not a rough 3 months.

Incidentally, Philip also wrote up about the Reagan crash:
https://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2025/01/29/reagan-national-airport-blackhawk-crj-crash/

 

[UserNameRequired]

I cannot imagine. A snap roll upon landing? Interesting. My questions would be.
1. Landing behind a heavy jet?
2. Was the wind slightly off the centerline of runway that may have allowed wake turbulence to remain over runway? Only if landing behind another jet. A light quartering tailwind is the receipt for problems.
3. If not. what was the wind?
4. Injured baby probably was being held by someone and flew out of holder's hands.

Even military has had very few upside down landings. Now takeoffs another story. The P-51s did have a few flips on takeoffs because pilots applied full power too quickly on takeoff rolls. Pilots did not firewall the throttle. Slow and sure even with close in aerial threats.

It looked to me like they flew it on, a really hard landing (misjudged or no flare from snow cover?), the landing gear collapsed on the right side, then the right wing got ripped off and the aircraft rolled over greasy side up from the lift of the left wing.

Language warning for the following video. It defaults to muted for me.

 

[saxman]

I have about 6,000 hour on this jet. The CRJ-900 was difficult to land properly in strong crosswinds. What we know is the wind was a right crosswind from about 270º while they were landing on runway 23. It does appear they slammed it on pretty hard. The right gear came off and broke the right wing off. The left wing was still producing lift which is what made it flip over. Windshear could be a big factor here. It sure appears to be a stable and normal approach until a couple seconds before. You can see the elevator make a sudden up movement right before impact, which tells me they tried arrest the impact. We'll see what the FDR and CVR say later.

 

[west point]

With that wind direction would the wind have encountered any building before meeting the airplane.? Wake turbulence from buildings was always a consideration.

 

[BlackDiamond]

Mentour Now has issued a video on this recent crash. He is careful to avoid any speculation at this time, merely pointing out what is known.

He will undoubtedly issue a more detailed analysis once the official reports are released months from now, on his Mentour Pilot channel.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

He is careful to avoid any speculation

Technically his video does contain speculation, but I’m not bothered because it’s a good wrap up and honestly what else would he talk about? Back in the day “Captain Joe” was supposedly giving Petter crap on making videos about current events, so maybe that’s why he says there is no speculation. My only issue with Petter are some of his…pronunciations.