The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has released its preliminary findings into what happened when a Delta Air Lines plane crash-landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport last month.
On the afternoon of Feb. 17, an Endeavor Air flight from Minnesota crashed at Pearson, sliding across the tarmac belly-up. Twenty-one of the 76 passengers on board were hospitalized, but have all since been released.
On Thursday, Ken Webster, the TSB’s lead investigator, said they brought the CRJ-900’s wreckage to a nearby airplane hangar to look at every component and determine what exactly happened.
They then simulated the crash conditions to “gain insight” on how the incident happened, but Webster says the investigation is far from complete. In their initial findings, the TSB noted the aircraft was flying within its allowable weight and balance limitations, meaning it wasn’t operating in a way that would have hindered the structural integrity of the plane.
At this time, the TSB determined “several things” occurred when the plane struck the tarmac that day.
“The side-stay attached to the aircraft’s right main landing gear fractured, the landing gear retracted, and the wing root fractured between the landing gear and the fuselage, which is the central body portion of the aircraft,” Webster said in a video posted online on Thursday.
The right-wing of the plane detached, releasing a “cloud of jet fuel” that subsequently caught fire as the plane slid down the runway. How exactly the plane crashed in this exact way is still being determined by the fracture surfaces, the TSB adds.
The TSB found the cockpit door “jammed shut,” prompting flight crew to exit through the emergency hatch.
Officials also say an explosion erupted outside the aircraft, by the left wing, but preliminary data could not yet determine the cause.
“Components of the flight control were visually examined and no obvious pre-existing malfunctions were noted,” Webster said. “Preliminary data from the flight data recorder did not contain any caution or warning messages pertaining to the flight controls.”
The TSB found that the Emergency Locator Transmitter (ELT), a device that sends distress signals to rescuers to help them find the aircraft, did not sound off when the plane downed. The device has been submitted to engineers for further analysis.
Thursday’s report is not the fulsome report, as officials say more details need to be considered.
Information about personnel so far
Investigators say the plane’s captain has been working for Endeavor Air for about 18 years, carries an U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-issued pilot certificate, and had flown a total of 3,570 hours throughout his career, including 764 hours flying CRJ-900s.
Officials also say it was the pilot’s first flight of the day as well as his first flight in a week, noting the captain had flown about three-and-a-half hours in the 30 days prior to the incident.
The co-pilot had been working at Endeavor Air for just over a year, since January 2024, the TSB found. She also carries an FAA-issued pilot certificate and had flown roughly 1,422 hours in her career.
Unlike the captain, she was on her fifth day of a five-day work cycle, having started her day in Cleveland.
As for flight attendants, the TSB say one had three years of experience—all with Endeavor Air—while the other working the back of the plane had been working in the industry for 11 years.
Questions about what happened in the cockpit: flight expert
The TSB wrote a play-by-play on how fast the plane was moving at what heights, and aviation expert Phyl Durdey noted everything appeared to be fine until the aircraft was about 150 feet away from the tarmac.
“The pilot flying was pulling back on the power and the descent rate increased up to 1,114 feet per minute, which is really significant,” Durdey told CP24 Thursday morning. “They were really approaching the ground at a very rapid rate.”
In the report, officials defined a hard landing as when a plane is descending at a rate higher than 600 feet per minute. Additionally, officials said the landing gear of the CRJ-900 was designed to absorb the energy of 720 feet per minute.
“When they impacted the ground, it was way beyond the structural limits of the aircraft,” Durdey said.
While the winds were gusting up to 35 knots—about 65 km/h—Durdey questions why the landing speeds were so high, as pilots typically pull back on power at about 150 feet to level out the aircraft to cut down on the descent rate.
“But that didn’t happen. The descent rate actually increased, so it begs to wonder what was going on in the cockpit,” Durdey said.
The flight data and cockpit voice recorders have both been removed from the wreckage and submitted for further analysis, but the TSB noted it captured the audio during the descent and landing.
A spokesperson for Delta Air Lines said they remain “fully engaged” in the TSB’s investigation, adding “nothing is more important” than safety for their customers and staff.
“Out of respect for the integrity of this work that will continue through their final report, Endeavor Air and Delta will refrain from comment,” Morgan Durrant of Delta told CTV News Toronto.
The investigation continues and will look at a myriad of factors to determine what caused the accident, looking at elements like landing techniques and pilot training, the evacuation process, and organizational and management factors.
