Landing gear support broke as Delta regional jet landed and flipped at Toronto airport, preliminary report says

A landing gear support broke as a Delta Air Lines regional jet was landing before it flipped upside down, leaving passengers “hanging like bats” at Toronto Pearson International in February, according to a preliminary report from Canada’s Transportation Safety Board.

A landing gear support broke as a Delta Air Lines regional jet was landing before it flipped upside down, leaving passengers “hanging like bats” at Toronto Pearson International in February, according to a preliminary report from Canada’s Transportation Safety Board. Less than three seconds before touchdown, investigators noted, the plane warned pilots with an audible alarm that they were descending quickly and the plane banked to the right. It was still descending rapidly when it hit the runway, tilted 7.5 degrees to the right, the report said. The plane, a CRJ-900, operated by Endeavor Airlines as Delta Connection Flight 4819 from Minneapolis to Toronto, landed February 17 in a fiery crash that ripped off a wing and rolled the plane upside down. All 80 passengers and crew made it out alive. Twenty-one were injured, including two seriously. On touchdown, investigators determined the side-stay attached to the aircraft’s right main landing gear fractured, the gear retracted, and the right wing broke between the landing gear and fuselage, which is the central part of the plane. When the wing detached, 6,000 pounds of jet fuel onboard sprayed out leading to a fire and explosion.