Delta Air Lines Forced to Reveal Details of Pilots Involved in Toronto Plane Crash After Fake Reports Cast Doubt Over Experience
- Delta has refuted claims swirling on social media that either pilot at the controls of Flight 4819 that crashed at Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday afternoon had failed training events
Delta Air Lines has been forced to reveal details of the two pilots involved in the inverted plane crash of a regional Delta Connection plane at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday afternoon after fake reports cast doubt over their flying experience.
In a statement posted on Thursday, the Atlanta-based carrier said it wanted to correct “disinformation” about the pilots and set “straight false and misleading assertions” that had been swirling on social media about the two pilots.
The decision to release the information came after fake reports suggested that both pilots, including the female First Officer, had failed training events, feeding into the highly damaging conspiracy theory that DEI initiatives are the root cause behind a string of recent aviation incidents.
Tackling each of the false reports, Delta said that the highly experienced Captain had been flying for a predecessor company of wholly owned regional subsidiary Endeavour Air since October 2007.
“He has served both as an active duty Captain and in pilot training and flight safety capacities. Assertions that he failed training events are false,” the airline said in a statement. “Assertions that he failed to flow into a pilot position at Delta Air Lines due to training failures are also false,” the statement continued.
The First Officer has worked for Endeavour Air since January 2024 and completed her training in April 2024. Again, Delta refuted false claims that she had failed training events. The airline also assured that her “flight experience exceeded the minimum requirements set by U.S. Federal regulations.”
“Both crew members are qualified and FAA-certified for their positions,” the short statement continued.
One of the false reports that had emerged about the two pilots was that the female First Officer was flying the CRJ regional jet at the time of the crash on Monday, while the training Captain rarely flew. Other reports had falsely claimed that the First Officer had struggled to complete training but the Endeavour Air had decided to keep her on due to DEI concerns.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) is leading the investigation into the crash of Delta Flight 4819 and on Wednesday, the agency said that it was still completing interviews with everyone onboard. Interviews are expected to continue for several days.
Both the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder had been recovered and are being analyzed at a specialist facility in Toronto. The two so-called ‘black boxes’ are likely to give a wealth of information into what caused the plane to crash upon landing, tearing off a wing and leaving the aircraft upside down on the runway.
It is, however, far too early to establish the cause of the accident, and investigators have cautioned that a complex probe such as this will take time. Accident reports will detail the training and flying experience of both pilots and a detailed ‘human factors’ element will form a major part of the report.
