A preliminary report from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada reveals that a Delta flight’s right main landing gear collapsed on impact, causing fuel to spray and start a fire when the plane landed at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport last month. Miraculously, all 80 people on board survived the incident, with 21 passengers injured – two seriously.
The report found that the first officer, who was in her fifth straight day of flying, was at the controls when the accident occurred. Despite having only 1,422 hours of flight time, which is below the Federal Aviation Administration minimum for a commercial pilot, she had received special permission to fly commercially due to a specific aviation degree and waiver.
About 13 seconds before landing, the plane’s airspeed increased, and the first officer pulled back on the thrust levers. However, just 2.6 seconds later, the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System alert sounded, indicating a high rate of descent. The aircraft’s indicated airspeed was 134 knots and groundspeed was 11 knots at touchdown.
During landing, the side stay attached to the right main landing gear fractured, causing the wing root to detach from the fuselage and leading to a massive fire. The cockpit door was jammed shut, and the flight crew exited through an emergency hatch on the ceiling of the cockpit. An explosion occurred outside the aircraft at the left wing root after all passengers had evacuated.
The investigation did not find any obvious preexisting malfunctions with the flight controls, and preliminary data from the flight recorder showed no warning messages about the flight controls.
Source: https://abcnews.go.com/International/main-landing-gear-collapsed-impact-fiery-toronto-plane/story?id=119984757