All 80 people on board a plane which crashed and overturned while landing in Toronto have survived, officials said.
The Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis skidded along the runway with one wing on fire and it came to a halt upside down as firefighters put out the flames.
Survivors said they were suspended upside down in their seats and had to release themselves, dropping on to the ceiling before clambering out on to the snow-covered tarmac.
Eighteen people were injured but only a small number are thought to be seriously hurt, and investigators are looking into what caused the crash.
There were 76 passengers and four crew on board the 16-year-old CRJ900 aircraft, made by Canada’s Bombardier company.
Eighteen passengers were taken to hospital. A child, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 40s suffered critical injuries, said Ontario air ambulance service Ornge.
In an evening briefing, Ms Flint called the response by emergency personnel “textbook” and credited them with helping ensure no loss of life.
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The US Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was operated by Delta’s subsidiary Endeavor Air.
Delta said the incident happened at about 14:15 ET (19:15 GMT) on Monday.
Twenty-two passengers were Canadian nationals and the rest were “multinational”, Ms Flint said.
The airport was closed after the incident, but flights into and out of Toronto Pearson resumed at about 17:00 local time.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board (TSB) said it was working to “gather information and assess the occurrence”.
Two runways will remain closed for several days for investigation and passengers have been told to expect some delays.
Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken said “the runway was dry and there was no cross-wind conditions”.
That contradicted earlier reports of wind gusts of more than 64km/h (40mph) and a crosswind.
Video footage shared on social media shows people clambering out of the overturned aircraft, with fire crews spraying it with foam.
“Our plane crashed, it’s upside down,” said one man as he filmed a video taken from outside the upturned plane.
The video shows passengers being helped out of the plane’s doors by airport staff, with some then running away from the plane’s entrance.
“Most people appear to be OK. We’re all getting off, there’s some smoke going on,” he can be heard saying.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford said provincial officials were in contact with the airport and local authorities and would provide any help needed.
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said he was “grateful to the first responders and professionals on the scene”.
After the crash, the airport’s arrival and departure boards showed scores of delays and cancellations to flights. Some passengers told the BBC that they were now stuck in Toronto for days.
James and Andrea Turner were in customs – located right before the departure gates – when they were suddenly told to evacuate.
“They got rid of everybody from customs to security, and then put everybody back to the general area,” James said, adding that the departures hall was packed as a result.
Toronto Pearson Airport had been experiencing weather-related delays over the last few days, with heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures battering parts of Ontario.
Two storms – one on Wednesday and one on Sunday – covered the city with a total of 30-50cm (11.8-19.6 inches) of snow.
The BBC’s US partner CBS reports that there was light snow falling at the time of the crash.
Earlier on Monday, the airport warned that “frigid temperatures and high winds were moving in”.
It said a “busy day” was expected, with airlines “catching up after this weekend’s snowstorm”.
The crash is at least the fourth major aviation incident in North America in the past month – including a deadly in-air collision between a passenger plane and a military helicopter near Washington DC’s Ronald Reagan airport, which killed all 67 people on board.
Source: BBC
