From Toronto to Miracle on Hudson, when planes crash and yet everyone survives

It is a plane crash like no other. On Monday (February 17), a Delta Air Lines jet with 80 people on board crash-landed at Toronto’s main airport, flipping upside down. Yes, Endeavor Air Flight 4819 with 76 passengers and four crew was preparing to land at the Toronto-Pearson International Airport when it overturned on its roof.

Miraculously, no one has died in the crash. Officials say that 18 people have sustained minor injuries and have been taken to area hospitals either by ambulance or helicopter. “We are very grateful there was no loss of life and relatively minor injuries,” said Deborah Flint, CEO of Greater Toronto Airports Authority.

Authorities are now trying to piece together how the crash occurred — it is still unclear what caused the aircraft to upend.

As investigations begin, we take a look at how passengers survived the air crash and other miraculous survival stories.

Delta Airlines plane bellies up at Toronto airport

On Monday, around 2.15 pm local time, Delta Air Lines Flight 4819 , which was operated by Endeavor Air, crashed on landing in Toronto. The plane originating from America’s Minneapolis was carrying 76 passengers and four crew members.

Upon nearing arrival, audio messages reveal that the air traffic controllers notified the pilots of 38 mph wind gusts. “Might be a slight bump in the glide path,” the air traffic worker said. “There will be an aircraft in front of you.”

Within two minutes, the plane had flipped. Fire erupted as the aircraft tumbled, and the plane slammed into the runway, spitting out a huge fireball and leaving passengers hung aloft in their seats. Emergency personnel reached the plane within a few minutes and everyone on board was pulled out safely.

Dramatic visuals show people stumbling away from the plane while fire crews douse the aircraft with water.

According to John Nelson, a passenger on the plane, the crash was unnerving. “When we got finished, I was upside down, everybody else was there as well. We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible.”

Another passenger, identified as Peter Koukov, said that after the aircraft came to a standstill, “we were upside down hanging like bats”. He was able to unbuckle himself and stand upright on the ceiling of the plane, but some people needed help getting down from their seats.

Another passenger also shared visuals of being suspended upside down in her seat after the plane had overturned. She captioned the visuals, “My plane crashed I’m upside down.”

Passenger Peter Carlson, who was seated at a window by the wing, described the impact as being “smacked into a wall” and thrown sideways. In an interview with The Star he said the plane “slid and slid and slid” before it came to a halt and he was upside down, suspended by a seatbelt. “It was like a strange dream,” he recalled.

The crash has led to Toronto Pearson International temporarily shutting down all five of its runways, causing delays and forcing several flights to divert to nearby airports.

Miracle at Japan’s Haneda Airport

The fact that no one died in Monday’s crash in Toronto has revived memories of other extraordinary plane tragedies. The most recent of these is the 2024 Haneda Airport runway collision.

On January 2 last year, Japan Airlines (JAL) Flight 516 was landing at Haneda Airport in Tokyo when it collided with a Coast Guard aircraft on the runway, causing both planes to catch fire instantly. Visuals showed the plane, carrying 367 passengers, turning into a fireball.

However, a miracle unfolded when the pilot and crew were able to rescue all on board and no one died in this horrific tragedy. In fact, when the incident occurred and visuals started to be shared on television and social media, most experts noted that survival would be far from possible.

As Tokyo resident Tsubasa Sawada told The Guardian, “I was laughing a bit at first when I could see sparks coming out [of the engine], but when the fire started, I realised it there was more to it than that. I really thought I was going to die.”

But the quick thinking of the pilot and the 12 crew members helped usher hundreds of people on board to safety. Video footage from inside the aircraft showed flight attendants at the front of a darkened cabin gesturing for passengers to remain seated and thanking them for their cooperation. Moreover, as firefighters arrived to begin battling the flames, the crew deployed the escape chutes in order for everyone to slide to safety.

The Miracle on the Hudson

This is perhaps one of the most popular air survival tales — so famous that it was also made into a movie named Sully in 2016.

It was on January 15, 2009, when US Airways Flight 1549 had taken off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport and scheduled to land at Charlotte, North Carolina. However, things took a disastrous turn when the aircraft hit a flock of birds (Canada geese). This was so significant that it obscured the pilots’ windscreen view. Almost immediately, both engines shut down, forcing Captain Chesley Burnett Sullenberger III, also known as Sully, to make an emergency landing.

When air traffic controllers instructed the seasoned pilot to head for nearby Teterboro Airport, he calmly informed them that he was “unable” to reach a runway. “We’re gonna be in the Hudson,” he said simply, and then told the 150 terrified passengers and five crew members on board to brace for impact.

Ninety seconds later, Sullenberger glided the Airbus A320 over the George Washington Bridge and onto the chilly surface of the Hudson River, where it splashed down midway between Manhattan and New Jersey. Flight attendants ushered passengers into life jackets, through emergency exits and onto the waterlogged wings of the bobbing jet. One survivor suffered two broken legs and others were treated for minor injuries or hypothermia, but no fatalities occurred.

Today, the incident is called ‘Miracle on the Hudson’ and Captain Sully is remembered as a hero not just by passengers on board that fateful flight but also across the world.

When a jet went off Toronto runway and everyone lived

Monday’s Delta crash at Toronto-Pearson Airport also evokes memories of the 2005 Air France accident, which occurred at the same spot.

On August 2, 2005, almost 25 years ago, an Air France Airbus A340 was operating a routine flight from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ) in Canada. The aircraft had 309 people onboard, comprising 297 passengers and 12 crew members.

All was well until the plane began its descent to land. Encountering severe weather-related turbulence, the plane skidded off the runway, crashed into a ravine and caught fire. Astoundingly, no one was killed, and only 14 people suffered minor injuries. This prompted then-Canadian Minister of Transport Jean Lapierre to call it “a miracle”.

Olivier Dubois, who was sitting near the back of the plane when the emergency unfolded, recounts that as soon as the plane came to a rest, the flight crew went to work to get all the passengers out. “We were jumping and then running, running in the field, trying to escape the flames and the smoke,” he told CBC News.

Lion Air plane falls into the sea

Landing at Ngurah Rai International Airport in Badung, Bali, usually provides passengers with a beautiful view of sandy beaches. However, that was not the case for those on board Lion Air Flight 904 on April 13, 2013. Passengers were forced to swim to safety when the plane missed the runway and crashed into the sea.

The Boeing 737, operated by Indonesian carrier Lion Air, broke apart as it hit the water while coming in to land. Passengers described screams of panic and fears of drowning as the cabin plunged into shallow waters. Twenty-two passengers were taken ashore suffering broken limbs, head wounds and shock but, incredibly, all 108 people on board survived.

Sharing the ordeal, Andis Prasetoyo, said, “We heard the flight attendant announce that we were about to land when suddenly the aircraft fell and we were in the sea.”

In 2017, Budi Waseso, the chief of Indonesia’s national narcotics agency, alleged that the pilot of Lion Air Flight 904 was under the influence of drugs at the time of the accident, and had hallucinated that the sea was part of the runway. This claim, however, contradicted the statement by Indonesia’s transport ministry, which said the pilots had not tested positive for drugs.

Plane splits in two but all survive

This plane crash is proof that miracles do occur. On July 30, 2011, a Caribbean Airlines jet en route from New York crashed in Guyana and split in two upon hitting the runway. Lo and behold, none of the 163 people on board were killed.

The tragedy occurred when the plane overshot the 7,400-foot runway at Cheddi Jagan International Airport, crashing through a chain-link airport fence and ending up on a dirt road around the airport. The plane broke in two just before reaching a 200-foot ravine. Fortunately, the plane didn’t burst into flames, allowing passengers to exit the plane safely. People said they scrambled out through the emergency exit and over the wings.

A Mexican miracle

In August 2018, an Aeromexico airliner carrying 103 people from the Mexican city of Durango to the country’s capital crashed soon after takeoff, but all passengers and crew survived the accident. Eighty-five people were injured – some seriously – but José Rosas Aispuro, the governor of Durango state, said there were no fatalities among the 97 adults, two children and four crew members on board.

With inputs from agencies