Aviation accident investigators have revealed new details about the chaotic evacuation of Delta Air Lines flight DL4819, which crashed, flipped over, and partially burst into flames while landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport on February 17.
On Thursday, The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) released its preliminary report into the crash in which, incredibly, all 80 passengers and crew walked away from the wreckage, and only four sustained serious injuries.
The 17-page report does not identify the cause of the crash or point a finger of blame in any one direction as a lot of investigatory work has to be undertaken, although the TSB said it had identified 11 areas of the investigation that will be examined in much more detail.
These include examining the wing structure of the Bombardier CL-600 regional jet, which was operated by Delta’s wholly owned subsidiary Endeavor Air, as well as landing techniques, pilot training, and certification of the landing gear.
Despite what appears, at first sight, to be an incredibly successful evacuation – no doubt in part due to the heroic actions of the two flight attendants onboard the plane – accident investigators have also identified a number of areas to do with the evacuation that warrant further examination.
After flipping over and sliding off the runway into a snow-covered patch of grass while inverted, the passengers were left hanging upside down in their seats, suspended by their safety belts – a detail that was already widely known.
Investigators have found that the seatbelts worked precisely as intended, keeping passengers safe, although some of those onboard struggled to release their belts because they were inverted.
In fact, some of the injuries sustained by passengers in the crash actually happened when they released their belts and fell to the ceiling, which, by now, was covered in hand luggage that had been thrown from the overhead lockers as the plane flipped and slid.
Having survived the initial crash, the pilots were initially unable to escape as the flight deck door was jammed shut due to the deformation of the fuselage and the position of the forward flight attendant jumpseat.
And although the aircraft does have an emergency escape hatch in the cockpit, this is located on the ceiling and was therefore obstructed because the aircraft was inverted.
Thankfully, the pilots were able to get the hatch slightly open and were then pulled out of the cockpit by one of the passengers who had already evacuated the aircraft.
Meanwhile, inside the cabin, passengers ended up being covered in jet fuel as they tried to get out of the plane via an overwing emergency exit, while several others were accidentally sprayed with fire retardant foam by the firefighters that first arrived at the scene of the accident.
Towards the front of the plane, a lavatory door had become unhinged and was blocking the visibility of the cabin and the evacuation before a passenger removed the door entirely to assist with the flow of passengers out of the aircraft.
An off-duty flight attendant and pilot who happened to be traveling as passengers on the plane assisted the two on-duty flight attendants in the evacuation, with the first fire brigade vehicle arriving at the aircraft five minutes after the crash.
Investigators cautioned that accidents “rarely stem from a single cause,” attempting to quell rumors that surfaced in the wake of the accident that the pilots were untrained and had been hired on DEI grounds.
Delta was forced to deny reports about the experience and training of the two pilots, saying that it needed to correct “disinformation” and “misleading assertions” that had been pedaled on social media platforms.
Amazing job by the passengers to assist in disembarking. Well done!