A plane crashed and flipped on its back at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Monday afternoon, injuring at least 15 passengers and closing down the airport’s runways.
Departures and arrivals at Pearson resumed as of 5 p.m. ET, the airport said in an update, after they were shut down temporarily following the crash.
All passengers and crew are accounted for, the airport said in a post to X just before 3 p.m. ET.
Peel Regional Paramedic Services, which services Mississauga, Ont., just outside Toronto, told Radio-Canada that 15 passengers in total were hurt, after initially saying it believed eight people had been injured.
Ornge, Ontario’s air ambulance service, said a child was taken to Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children with critical injuries, while a man in his 60s and a woman in her 40s were also taken to Toronto hospitals with critical injuries.
Three air ambulance helicopters and two critical care land ambulances were dispatched to the scene, Ornge said.
WATCH | Video shows passengers disembarking from overturned plane at Pearson:
Toronto’s Pearson airport is responding to an emergency involving a plane arriving from Minneapolis Monday afternoon, the airport said in a post to X. Paramedics say they are dealing with eight patients involved in the emergency.
A superintendent with the Peel paramedic service said all of the other roughly 80 passengers and crew are accounted for and not believed to be injured at this time.
Peel Regional Police Const. Sarah Patten told Reuters that most of the passengers were unharmed, “but we’re still trying to make sure so we’re still on scene investigating.”
The airport said earlier in the day that it was expecting a busy day on Monday as airlines tried to catch up after 22 centimetres of snow fell over the weekend, causing a mass of delays and cancellations. More than 130,000 travellers were expected to board about 1,000 flights, it said in a post on Monday morning.
First responders work at the Delta Air Lines plane crash site at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ont., on Monday. (Arlyn McAdorey/Reuters)
The Delta Air Lines plane, a Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR, has capacity for 95 seats and was built by Bombardier Inc., according to an aircraft registration posted on FlightAware, an online flight tracking platform. It has been registered to Delta since January 2010, according to the website.
In an online update posted Monday afternoon, Delta Air Lines said it was aware of the crash involving Flight 4819, operated by subsidiary Endeavor Air.
“Our primary focus is taking care of those impacted,” the update said. “Delta is working to connect with customers travelling from, to or through YYZ who should also monitor the status of their flight via the Fly Delta app.”
Federal Transport Minister Anita Anand posted on X, formerly Twitter, that she’s closely following the “serious incident.”
“Passengers travelling across Canada today are advised to check the status of their flight before going to their airport due to traffic impacts from diverted flights,” she said.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said it is sending a team to investigate the incident. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said on social media that it is assisting with the investigation.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow posted on X on Monday that she was relieved all passengers and crew were accounted for.
“Thank you to the first responders, crew and airport staff for their quick actions and commitment to keeping everyone safe,” she said.
Ontario Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford, Green Party Leader Mike Schreiner and NDP Leader Marit Stiles all expressed their relief on social media that there were no fatalities.
