Experts say early report suggests Delta plane descended too fast before Toronto crash

TORONTO — Aviation experts say a preliminary report into a plane crash at Toronto’s Pearson airport suggests the aircraft came down at a high speed and touched down hard enough to break its landing gear.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada released its report Thursday as it continues to investigate the Feb. 17 Delta Air Lines crash landing that sent 21 people to hospital, noting that it’s too early to draw any conclusions.

Some aviation analysts, however, say the data included in the report show the plane approached the runway at a higher speed than normal.

A normal rate of descent would be about 100-200 feet per minute for a smooth landing, while 300-400 feet per minute would result in a firm landing and 600 feet per minute a “very firm” landing noticeable by the crew and passengers, said Kit Darby, a U.S.-based aviation consultant with more than 20,000 hours of flight experience.

The report indicates the plane touched down at roughly 1,100 feet per minute, or “a really hard landing,” he said.

“It would appear that hard landing was hard enough to break the airplane,” said Darby, a veteran aviator and flight instructor of commercial passenger jets.

“It broke one of the supporting links to the landing gear and the landing gear folded,” he said. The plane then went down on the wing on that same side, which broke off, he said.

“The reason that it was so survivable is that we had a long, smooth runway in front of us … the airplane was not stopped from sliding to a stop, a relatively lengthy deceleration not causing any threat to the passengers or the crew.”

All 76 passengers and four crew members survived when the plane arriving from Minneapolis burst into flames after flipping over and skidding on the tarmac. All of those who were hospitalized were released within days of the crash.

The TSB report says the aircraft got a boost of speed as it was descending, likely due to a wind gust. That prompted the co-pilot, who was flying the plane, to pull back on power, which made it start to slow down, the report says.

“When the aircraft was at about a height of 50 feet and below was when things started to happen,” Ken Webster, the TSB’s lead investigator in the case, said in an interview Thursday.

The aircraft’s rate of descent had increased and the ground proximity warning system issued an alert about it less than three seconds before touchdown, he said.

The report says the plane’s landing gear folded into the retracted position at touchdown and the wing detached from the fuselage, releasing a cloud of jet fuel, which caught fire as the plane slid along the runway.

The fuselage rolled upside down and a large portion of the tail came off in the process, the document says.

The crew and passengers started evacuating once the plane came to a stop, the report says, adding that some of the passengers were injured when they unbuckled their seatbelts and fell to the ceiling.

The TSB says it’s not aware of any issues with the seatbelts or seats during the incident.

The cockpit door was jammed shut, forcing pilots to escape through the emergency hatch on the ceiling of the cockpit after everyone else was out, the report says.

Emergency response personnel then went into the fuselage, and there was an explosion outside the plane near the left wing root shortly afterward, the TSB says. The cause of the explosion has not yet been determined.

So far, the investigation has found no pre-existing problems with the flight controls, though some components were damaged in the crash, the safety board says.

“Preliminary data from the flight data recorder did not contain any caution or warning messages pertaining to the flight controls, but further analysis will be conducted as we continue some of the areas we will be focusing on,” the agency says in a video.

The TSB says its ongoing investigation is focusing on several key areas, including metallurgical examination of the wing structure, landing techniques, pilot training and the passenger evacuation process.

While the preliminary report lays out some initial facts, it doesn’t explain why things played out the way they did, Webster said.

“We have lots of work to do yet,” he said.

“In the coming months, we’ll work on things like explaining why all this happened, why did the aircraft touch down hard, and why did all these components break and those sorts of things.”

Darby, the aviation consultant, said proper landing technique is to start with the nose of the plane up to break the descent, then reduce the power, but it appears based on the report that the power was already decreased before bringing the nose up.

“As an instructor, that would pretty much guarantee a firm landing,” he said.

Snow on the ground could also make it difficult to gauge the height of the runway because it decreases the contrast, he said. Meanwhile, crosswinds make control difficult and the wind gust “makes it even worse,” he said.

“I’m not sure I would have had the co-pilot flying the plane under those circumstances … it might have been more prudent for the captain to be flying,” he said.

He noted the pilot had relatively low experience despite meeting minimum requirements, with fewer than 4,000 hours of flying time over more than 15 years at the airline.

J. Joseph, a veteran aviator in the United States Marine Corps, said human factors will likely be a key focus of the investigation, assuming no mechanical issues are detected.

“Certainly, there’s some pilot performance issues that will be examined in depth here as to why a flight crew was not able to safely land the airplane absent any mechanical deficiencies,” he said.

Investigators will need to look at why the pilots may have missed or failed to react to visual cues and the alert regarding the rate of descent, he said.

“Landing in gusty conditions is one thing the pilots are trained to do, it’s not something that’s abnormal.”

Several lawsuits have been filed in the United States since the crash and a law firm in Canada has said that it’s been retained by several passengers.

In one statement of claim filed last week, two Canadian passengers allege the crash left them with extreme and ongoing physical injuries and emotional distress, as well as “economic losses.”

They’re alleging Delta and its subsidiary, Endeavor Air, showed a “gross, wanton, and wilful disregard for the rights and safety of all passengers” on the flight.

The allegations have not been tested in court and no statement of defence has been filed at this time.

Delta said it will refrain from commenting on the TSB’s preliminary report “out of respect for the integrity” of the agency’s ongoing investigation.

“For everyone at Endeavor Air and Delta, nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and our people. That’s why we remain fully engaged as participants in the investigation led by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada,” it said in a brief statement on its website.

Delta has previously offered US$30,000 in compensation to passengers who were on the plane, saying the money “has no strings attached and does not affect rights.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2025.

Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press