TORONTO: 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.
Delta CEO says flight crew on Toronto plane that crashed was experienced
https://arab.news/band5
Delta CEO says flight crew on Toronto plane that crashed was experienced
- “There is one level of safety at Delta,” Bastian said
- “All these pilots train for these conditions“
UN chief says 37,000 West Bank Palestinians displaced in 2025; warns Gaza war threatens two-state solution
- ‘We enter 2026 with the clock ticking louder than ever. Will the year ahead bend towards peace or slip into the abyss of despair?” asks Secretary-General Antonio Guterres
- Illegal settlement expansions, demolitions, displacements and evictions in the West Bank are accelerating, he says
NEW YORK CITY: More than 37,000 Palestinians were displaced in the occupied West Bank during 2025, a year in which there were also record-high levels of violence committed by Israeli settlers, UN secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Tuesday.
The situation on the ground was rapidly eroding the prospects for a two-state solution, he warned.
“We enter 2026 with the clock ticking louder than ever,” Guterres told the opening session of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People.
“Will the year ahead bend towards peace or slip into the abyss of despair?”
Illegal settlement expansions, demolitions, displacements and evictions in the West Bank were accelerating, said Guterres, who described the Israeli actions as destabilizing in nature and unlawful under international law.
“The recently published tender by Israel for 3,401 housing units in the E1 area (of the West Bank), alongside continued demolitions, is profoundly alarming,” he added.
“If carried forward, it would sever the northern and southern West Bank, undermine territorial contiguity, and strike a severe blow to the viability of a two-state solution.”
Turning to the situation in Gaza, Guterres said Palestinians there continued to endure “grave suffering.” More than 500 have been killed since the truce between Israel and Hamas in October, he noted.
“I urge all parties to implement the (ceasefire) agreement in full, exercise maximum restraint, and comply with international law and UN resolutions,” he said.
He called for the rapid and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian aid at scale, including through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, which Israel reopened on Monday.
Guterres criticized Israeli authorities for the continued suspension of international non-governmental organizations that provide aid, which he said “defies humanitarian principles, undermines fragile progress, and worsens the suffering of civilians.”
Regarding the future of Gaza, he said any sustainable solution must include governance of the territory and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, by a unified and internationally recognized Palestinian government.
“Gaza is and must remain an integral part of a Palestinian state,” Guterres added.
He also reaffirmed his support for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and condemned recent Israeli legislation and other actions he said impeded the ability of the agency to operate, including moves to demolish its Sheikh Jarrah compound in occupied East Jerusalem.
“Let me be clear: UNRWA premises are United Nations premises,” he said. “They are inviolable and immune from any form of interference.”
Guterres described public threats against UNRWA staff as “utterly abhorrent,” and said Israel was obliged under international law to respect the privileges and immunities of the UN.
He also reiterated that an end to Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory was essential.
“There is only one viable route (to peace): the two-state solution, in line with international law and relevant United Nations resolutions,” he said, as he called on the international community to act “with clarity, unity and determination” on the issue.
