Child among badly injured as plane flips upon landing in Toronto

A badly injured child is among eight people who were hurt when a Delta Airlines plane flipped upon arrival at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

The airport confirmed on X that an “incident” occurred with the Delta flight from Minneapolis on Monday (local time) and that all 80 passengers and crew are accounted for. Three of the eight people hurt are critically injured, paramedics said. Delta said in a statement the accident happened at 3.30pm.

Video from the scene shows the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR upside down on the snowy tarmac as emergency workers hose it down. The plane was somewhat obscured by snow from a winter storm that hit Toronto over the weekend.

Ornge air ambulance said it was transporting one paediatric patient to Toronto’s SickKids hospital and two adults with critical injuries to other hospitals in the city.

“Emergency teams are responding," the airport said in a post on the social platform X.

"All passengers and crew are accounted for."

It is too early to say what caused the plane to flip but weather may have played a factor. According to the Meteorological Service of Canada, the airport was experiencing blowing snow and winds of (51 km/h gusting to 65 km/h. The temperature was about -8.6C.

The US Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the Transportation Safety Board of Canada will head up the investigation and provide any updates. The National Transportation Safety Board said it is leading a team of US investigators to assist in the Canadian investigation.

It is at least the fourth major aviation mishap in North America in the past month. A commercial jetliner and an Army helicopter collided near the nation’s capital on January 29, killing 67 people. A medical transportation plane crashed in Philadelphia on January 31, killing the six people on board and another person on the ground and 10 were killed in a plane crash in Alaska.

Delta said in a statement that "initial reports were that there are no fatalities."

"Several customers with injuries were transported to area hospitals. Our primary focus is taking care of those impacted," the airline added.

Ontario's Premier Doug Ford said on X he is "relieved there are no casualties after the incident at Toronto Pearson." Toronto is the capital of Ontario.

"Provincial officials are in contact with the airport and local authorities and will provide any help that's needed," Ford said.

Endeavor Air, based in Minneapolis, is a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines and the world's largest operator of CRJ-900 aircraft. The airline operates 130 regional jets on 700 daily flights to over 126 cities in the US, Canada and the Caribbean, according to the company's website.

The CRJ900, a popular regional jet, was developed by Canadian aerospace company Bombardier. It's in the same family of aircraft as the CRJ700, the type of plane involved in the midair collision near Reagan National Airport on January 29.