Delta Air Lines announced on Wednesday that it will offer $30,000 to each passenger aboard the plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week. A company spokesperson clarified that the gesture comes with no strings attached and will not impact the passengers’ rights.
The incident occurred on Monday when a Delta flight from Minneapolis, Minnesota, encountered a rough landing. The plane hit the runway hard, flipped upside down, and caught fire, producing thick plumes of black smoke. The aircraft came to a halt on its roof, but fortunately, all 80 people on board survived the crash.
Delta confirmed that 21 passengers were injured, with one still hospitalized as of Wednesday morning. The injuries included back sprains, head injuries, and symptoms like anxiety and headaches. Emergency responders were on the scene quickly to assist, and footage of the crash, shared on social media and verified by AFP, showed the dramatic sequence of events as the Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft rolled and lost its wings before coming to rest.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has opened an investigation into the crash, with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Delta, and Mitsubishi who acquired the CRJ line from Bombardier in 2019 collaborating in the inquiry.
The crash is part of a concerning trend of recent aviation accidents in North America, including a midair collision between a U.S. Army helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington that claimed 67 lives, as well as a medical transport plane crash in Philadelphia that left seven people dead.
