Industry News
Video footage of inside the Delta plane that crashed and flipped over in Toronto, Canada, on Monday, February 17, was posted on Instagram by pro skier Pete Koukov. The video footage is from the moments after the crash when he and other passengers left the plane through the emergency exit and onto the runway. The accident occurred at Toronto Pearson International Airport, and 21 injured passengers were initially transported to local hospitals, and as of Tuesday morning, 19 have been released. There were no fatalities in the landing of Flight 4819, which carried a total of 80 people, 76 passengers, and four crew members, according to Delta Airlines.
In an interview with the Today Show, Koukov commended the flight attendants for a “pretty organized” evacuation of the plane. “Everyone got off in a pretty orderly fashion. It didn’t seem too insane once the plane had stopped and everyone realized, for the most part, they were OK because no one was seriously injured,” Koukov said.
It is unclear what caused the crash at this time. Deborah Flint, the President and CEO of Toronto Pearson Airport, said that teams from Delta and Mitsubishi, the makers of the CRJ-900 aircraft, were on site, along with investigators from Canada’s Transportation Safety Board and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will investigate the crash with assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. Flint said investigators are expected to review the aircraft in its current configuration on the runway for the next 48 hours, after which it’ll be removed and the runways reopened. Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement shared to LinkedIn, “The hearts of the entire global Delta family are with those affected by today’s incident at Toronto-Pearson International Airport.”
Koukov, who grew up in Boulder, Colorado, recorded the video of the runway evacuation after a Delta plane flipped upside down during a crash. “The wheels touched down, and all of a sudden, I just remember being fully sideways, and I was looking down and just seeing sparks and flames,” Koukov said in the interview with the Today Show. Koukov is a 28-year-old freeskier who has appeared in ski movies “Stricly Business” and “Most Gutter.”
The cause of the accident remains under investigation.
