BBC News
No deaths have been reported after a plane landing in Toronto from the US skidded along the runway and flipped over, with flames visible for a brief time.
It is not clear what caused the incident, with analysts suggesting that the weather may have played a role, or that the aircraft struck something.
An investigation is under way.
What happened when the plane crashed?
The incident took place shortly before 15:00 local time on Monday (20:00 GMT).
It involved a model CRJ-900 plane, operating as Delta Air Lines flight DL4819.
The aircraft arrived at Toronto from the US city of Minneapolis and was carrying 76 passengers and four crew members.
As it landed, the plane appears to have struck the runway, slid for some distance and then flipped over, observed Dan Ronan, a journalist and pilot licensed by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) who spoke to BBC News.
Footage obtained by TMZ showed part of the aircraft bursting into flames as the landing happened. Firefighters rushed to put these out.
Passenger Pete Carlson told broadcaster CBC it was “a very forceful event”, recalling the sound of “concrete and metal” at the moment of impact.
He and others on board were suspended upside down in their seats, and had to release themselves onto the cabin ceiling before leaving the inverted aircraft.
All 80 people on board survived. There were 18 injuries, of which only a small number are thought to be serious.
Delta has promised to give more updates.
Why did the plane crash?
Officials are investigating, and have cautioned against speculation.
The right wing may have struck the runway or an item on it, such as a light, Mr Ronan suggested.
The weather may also be significant, although the airport fire chief stated that the runway was dry at the time of the incident.
Airport authorities had said earlier that although recent heavy snow had stopped, “frigid temperatures and high winds [were] moving in”.
As the plane came in to land, air traffic controllers told the pilots of 38mph (61km/h) gusts and the possibility of a “slight bump in the glide path”, CNN reported.
The pilots appear to have attempted what is known as a crab manoeuvre, Mr Ronan said. This involves turning a plane into the wind, and then directly onto the runway at the last moment.
How did everybody on board the plane survive?
“The sheer survivability of this is really amazing,” Mr Ronan told the BBC, pointing out that the aeroplane’s fuselage (body) had stayed intact.
He also highlighted the importance of the plane’s high-impact 16G seats, which he said were “designed to absorb a great deal of punishment”.
Another commentator hailed the importance of other safety improvements.
CNN analyst and former FAA inspector David Soucie said the plane’s wings had broken off as they were meant to, which stopped the body of the plane being ripped in half.
The flight attendants have also been praised for getting everyone off the flipped aeroplane quickly. Emergency crews were labelled “heroic” by the airport chief after reaching the crash site in a matter of minutes.
Mr Carlson said the passengers themselves had worked together very effectively. “What I saw was everyone on that plane suddenly became very close in terms of how to help one another, how to console one another,” he said.
Which other plane crashes have happened recently?
This marks the fourth major air crash in North America in less than a month, and other recent incidents remain under investigation.
- All 67 people on board a passenger aeroplane and military helicopter died after the two aircraft collided in mid-air near Washington DC on 29 January
- Seven people were killed on 1 February when a medical transportation plane carrying six people crashed in Philadelphia. Another person was killed on the ground
- All 10 people were killed when a small plane came down in Alaska on 6 February
Those incidents followed another high-profile crash in South Korea in December, in which 179 people were killed.
Despite these, experts say air travel remains overwhelmingly safe – and increasingly so.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says there were 257 fatal accidents in the US in 2024, compared with 362 in 2014.