A preliminary report by the Canadian Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has revealed new details about the final seconds before a Delta Air Lines plane carrying 80 people crashed in Toronto last month. The report found that the plane was descending at an excessive speed of 1,100 feet per minute when it touched down, nearly twice the rate considered safe by Delta’s operations manual.
The TSB report stated that a warning about the rapid descent had sounded just before landing, but the pilots did not take sufficient action to slow down. The plane landed with its nose pointed upward at a one-degree angle, lower than the recommended three to eight degrees.
Experts say that such conditions can make flying “very difficult,” and the rate of descent was so great that it exceeded the design stress limits of the landing gear. The TSB report did not assign a cause for the crash or an explosion near the left wing that occurred after the plane was empty.
All 80 people on board, including four crew members, were able to evacuate safely. However, at least 21 people were injured in the crash. Delta Air Lines has offered each passenger $30,000 in compensation with “no strings attached.” Several lawsuits have been filed against the company by Canadian passengers.
According to aviation safety experts, windy conditions can complicate landing processes and make flying more challenging. The captain of the plane had 764 hours of flight time on the same aircraft model involved in the crash, while the first officer had nearly 420 hours of experience with that specific aircraft.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/world/canada/delta-plane-crash-toronto-report.html