(Reuters) – A safety warning system went off in a Delta Air Lines regional jet before it landed and flipped belly-up at Canada’s largest airport in February, indicating a fast rate of descent, the country’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said on Thursday in a preliminary report on the accident.
Despite nearly two dozen injured passengers, none of the 80 people died on board flight DL4819, a CRJ900 jet operated by Delta’s Endeavor Air subsidiary from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
Video capturing the plane turning over after landing and missing its right wing at Canada’s largest airport had circulated widely on social media. Several recent high-profile air crashes have been cited by some U.S. airline CEOs as contributing factors to dampening domestic travel demand.
“Some passengers had difficulty releasing the buckles on their safety belts due to being inverted,” the report said. “Some of the injuries sustained by the passengers occurred when they unbuckled their safety belts and fell to the ceiling. The TSB is not aware of any safety belt or seat failures occurring during the accident.”
The TSB’s preliminary report into the February 17 incident at Toronto’s Pearson Airport also provided details on the experience of crew members. The jet’s captain had worked for Endeavor Air since 2007 and had 3,570 hours of total flight time while the first officer had had 1,422 hours of total flight time.
(Reporting By Allison Lampert, David Shepardson and Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
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