Multiple people injured after plane crashes upside down at Toronto Pearson International Airport

The Delta Airlines flight carrying 76 passengers and four crew from Minneapolis, Minnesota crashed just before 3pm on Monday at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Fifteen people were injured, paramedics said.

Ornge, Ontario’s ambulance service, told CP24 that one child was was being transported to Toronto’s SickKids hospital with critical injuries. A man in his 60s and a woman in her 60s also both sustained critical injuries.

The other 12 were taken to local hospitals with minor injuries.

Canadian Transportation Minister Anita Anand said in a post on X that all 80 people on board were accounted for.

“I’m closely following the serious incident at the Pearson Airport involving Delta Airlines flight 4819 from Minneapolis,” she said.

The airport said in a post on X, “Toronto Pearson is aware of an incident upon landing involving a Delta Airlines plane arriving from Minneapolis. Emergency teams are responding. All passengers and crew are accounted for.”

Video posted on social media showed the aftermath of the crash, with the badly damaged small plane flipped on its roof as passengers are evacuated on the snow-covered runway.

“We’re in Toronto — we just landed, our plane crashed, it’s upside down,” John Nelson said in a video on Facebook.

“Fire department’s on site. Most people are going to be OK. They’re all getting off.”

Flight records show Delta Flight 4819 took off from Minneapolis at about 11.47am, with the crash occurring just before 3pm.

“Delta is aware of reports of Endeavor Flight 4819 operating from Minneapolis/St. Paul to Toronto-Pearson International Airport as involved in an incident,” Delta Airlines said in a statement posted to its website.

“We are working to confirm any details and will share the most current information on news.delta.com as soon as it becomes available.”

The plane is a Bombardier CRJ-900LR, which can hold up to 88 passengers and four crew.

“It is my understanding that most of the passengers are out and unharmed but we’re still trying to make sure so we’re still on scene investigating,” Constable Sarah Patten of the Peel Regional Police in Ontario told Reuters.

Toronto Pearson is the country’s “largest and busiest airport, in Canada’s largest and busiest city”, its website notes.

It handles around 456,000 flights and more than 44 million passengers annually.

The airport is located about 23 kilometres northwest of Toronto’s CBD. 

CTV News reports the airport has shut down all arrivals and departures.

It’s the latest in a string of airline incidents across North America in recent weeks, including the devastating January 29 collision of a US Army helicopter with an American Airlines flight near Washington DC that killed 67 people.

Monday’s crash is the first major incident involving a commercial passenger jet since the Potomac River tragedy.

On January 31, Meds Jets Flight 056, a Learjet 55 carrying six people including a young patient and her mother, crashed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, leaving seven dead and dozens injured.

On February 6, Bering Air Flight 445 crashed in Alaska, killing all 10 occupants aboard the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan.

On February 13, a pilot was killed and four others injured after a private jet owned by Motley Crue singer Vince Neil slammed into another plane Scottsdale Airport in Arizona.