Delta offers more than $52,000 to each passenger on jet that flipped in Toronto

Frightening new clear footage has captured the moment a Delta Airlines plane flipped onto its back and went up in flames after coming into land at Toronto Airport. Photo / John Nelson, Volcaholic1

Delta Air Lines is offering US$30,000 ($52,246) to each passenger on a regional jet that crashed and flipped upside down in the snow while landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.

Remarkably, all 80 people on board survived the crash on Monday (Tuesday morning NZ time). As of Wednesday morning, one passenger remained in hospital, the airline said. Delta said 21 passengers were taken to hospitals with injuries after the crash.

The payment offered to passengers “has no strings attached” and does not affect their rights, a spokesperson for Delta said in an email on Wednesday evening. The airline declined to comment on how many people had taken up the offer.

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Experts credited the aircraft design and the cabin crew’s quick response for the fact there were no deaths on the flight, which was operated by Minneapolis-based regional airline Endeavor Air.

“Our Endeavor crew performed heroically,” Delta chief executive Ed Bastian said on CBS Mornings on Wednesday. He commended the crew for their professionalism and said safety is “embedded into our system”.

The Bombardier CRJ-900 departed from Minneapolis about 10.30am local time on Monday and attempted to land at Toronto airport around 2:15pm, appearing to clip a wing as it touched down. Video of the crash showed smoke billowing as emergency crews descended on the upturned plane.

Videos shared online showed passengers crawling out of the wreckage. One clip, apparently taken inside the plane, showed seat cushions and debris scattered across the overturned cabin, the Washington Post reported.

Flight attendants walked along what was once the ceiling, shouting for passengers to “drop everything” and evacuate through an emergency exit door.

The cause of the crash is still unknown. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is investigating, along with the US National Transportation Safety Board.

It comes amid heightened scrutiny of flight safety following a midair collision over the Potomac River last month between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines passenger jet near Reagan National Airport. That crash killed all 67 people on board both aircraft.

Bastian said Wednesday that flying remains one of the safest forms of transportation.

“We’re a very competitive industry across the US airlines, but there’s one thing we do not compete on, and that’s safety,” he said. “We all work together, and we all learn from each other.”

María Luisa Paúl, Amanda Coletta and Vivian Ho contributed to this report.