Delta plane triggered fast descent warning before flipping and catching fire on runway

The aircraft hit the runway at a descent speed 50 per cent higher than its landing gear was designed to absorb

An alert warning system on the Delta Air Lines jet that flipped upside down upon landing last month signalled a fast descent before it crash-landed in Toronto, investigators have found.

The Transport Safety Board of Canada (TSB), which is investigating the plane that flipped while landing on 17 February leaving passengers “hanging upside down like bats”, has released a preliminary report on the incident.

All 76 passengers and four crew members travelling from Minneapolis to the Canadian city survived the landing. 21 people were hospitalised but were released several days after the crash.

Canada’s TSB preliminary report says that when the plane’s ground proximity warning system sounded 2.6 seconds before touchdown, it indicated a “high rate of descent” with the airspeed at 136 knots, which is around 155mph.

A flight operations manual defines a hard landing, when a plane lands at a greater vertical descent rate than normal, as more than 600 feet per minute (fpm). Just before the crash, the rate of descent was recorded as 1,100 fpm.

The aircraft involved in the accident at Toronto Pearson Airport, Ontario (Transportation Safety Board Canada)

It also revealed that the plane’s landing gear had folded into the retracted position during touchdown after its side stay, which supports and locks the gear, fractured.

“The right main landing gear outboard side-stay fractured at the connection to the landing gear strut; the landing gear then folded inward. The side-stay remained in the down-and-locked position,” the report said.

“Various other components of the landing gear strut and side-stay attachment fittings were found scattered along the runway”.

The report also noted that wing the detached from the fuselage, releasing a cloud of jet fuel that caught fire.

The broken wing of the CRJ-900 aircraft (Transportation Safety Board Canada)

The plane then slid along the runway, rolling to the right until it became inverted, with other parts such as a portion of the tail becoming detatched during the roll, until it came to a rest on the runway.

The TSB also noted that the flight deck door was jammed shut, so the pilots had to climb out an emergency escape hatch on the ceiling of the cockpit.

Some of the injuries sustained by passengers occurred when they unbuckled from their seats and fell to the ceiling, but the TSB added it is not aware of any safety belt or sear failures during the crash.

The report has not identified a cause for the crash as it is too early on in the investigation timeline, and the preliminary information gathered could change as it continues.

“Accidents and incidents rarely stem from a single cause,” said Yoan Marier, chair of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada in a statement.

Visible damage is seen on the outside of the cockpit of the CRJ-900 aircraft (Transportation Safety Board Canada)

“They’re often the result of multiple, complex interconnected factors, many extending beyond the aircraft and its operation to wider systemic issues.”

The safety board said the investigation is still ongoing and is currently focusing on looking into examining the wing structure, flight deck door structure and design, landing techniques, pilot training and passenger evacuation.

In a statement in response to the preliminary report, Delta said: “For everyone at Endeavor Air and Delta, nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and our people.

“That’s why we remain fully engaged as participants in the investigation led by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.

“Out of respect for the integrity of this work that will continue through their final report, Endeavor Air and Delta will refrain from comment.”

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