(Reuters) – Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said on Wednesday the flight crew on board the regional jet that flipped upside down upon landing in Toronto earlier this week was experienced.
The crew on Delta’s Endeavor Air subsidiary in Monday’s crash, in which 21 people were injured, was familiar with wintry conditions in Toronto, Bastian told “CBS Mornings” in an interview.
“There is one level of safety at Delta,” Bastian said. “All these pilots train for these conditions.”
Bastian called the video of the incident “horrifying” but praised the actions of the flight crew to quickly evacuate the airplane. “This is what we train for,” Bastian said. “We train for this continuously.”
All of those injured are expected to survive.
On Tuesday, investigators said they recovered black boxes for lab analysis. Transportation Safety Board of Canada senior investigator Ken Webster said that following initial impact on the runway at Toronto’s Pearson Airport, parts of the CRJ900 aircraft separated and a fire ensued.
Bastian said despite several high-profile incidents, air travel remains safe. “It is the safest form of transportation, period,” Bastian said.
Webster echoed other aviation safety officials saying it was too early to tell what happened to Flight 4819 from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Air crashes are usually caused by multiple factors.
In a separate video showing the plane’s descent, the landing appeared flat and did not show the regular “flare” of the jet, where pilots pull the nose up to increase pitch just prior to touchdown, experts said.
The 16-year-old CRJ900, made by Canada’s Bombardier and powered by GE Aerospace engines, can seat up to 90 people.
Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday was dealing with high winds and frigid temperatures as airlines attempted to rebound after a major weekend snowstorm.
Separately, Bastian said he had spoken to Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and was not concerned by the layoff of several hundred employees at the Federal Aviation Administration, saying they were in “non-critical safety functions.” Bastian said the Trump administration was committed to boosting air traffic controller hiring and improving air traffic technology.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Chizu Nomiyama)
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