Passengers of Delta Air Lines Flight 4819, which crash-landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport, have been offered $30,000 each as a goodwill gesture. The Endeavor Air CRJ900 aircraft has been cleared from Runway 23 following the incident and a period of adverse weather conditions.
On February 17th at 14:13 local time, the plane landed hard and flipped over during its flight from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport to Toronto. All 80 passengers and crew survived; however, several individuals were injured, with three sustaining serious injuries.
Delta’s spokesperson Morgan Durrant stated that the compensation “has no strings attached and does not affect rights,” adding that all fares will be refunded. More than 20 people required hospital treatment but have since been discharged.
Delta’s Care Team is assisting passengers in Toronto by providing accommodations, meals, transportation, and working on retrieving baggage with a specialist company handling hazardous fluids. This process may take weeks to complete.
Passenger Pete Koukov recounted to NBC News how travelers ended up hanging from their seatbelts after the flip, commending flight attendants for an orderly evacuation.
The damaged aircraft was removed Wednesday evening by Delta’s TechOps team alongside the Greater Toronto Airports Authority and Air Canada. It will undergo further examination in a hangar to determine the cause of the accident.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), along with Delta, Endeavor Air, and Mitsubishi representatives, are conducting an investigation. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder have been sent for analysis.
Some passengers are considering legal action due to injuries and distress caused by the crash. Two individuals have contacted Toronto law firm Rochon Genova for representation in aviation cases; others are seeking assistance from a U.S.-based law firm.
While investigations continue into what went wrong during landing amid strong crosswinds, Delta CEO Ed Bastian emphasized that pilots are trained for such conditions under one safety standard at Delta.
