Aviation expert questions Delta plane’s ‘rate of descent’ after new videos of crash landing at Pearson Airport emerge

While it’s still not clear why a Delta Air Lines plane from Minneapolis crash-landed at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on Monday, one expert is now questioning the speed of the plane’s descent after viewing new videos of the incident.

J. Joseph, a veteran aviator in the U.S. Marine Corps., with decades of experience and more than 30,000 logged flight hours, told CityNews on Tuesday that he’s seen the recent videos of the incident, and although they can be deceiving, there is cause for concern.

“What we do see … is that it appears that the rate of descent of the aircraft in the most recent videos shows that it doesn’t appear that the rate of descent was arrested prior to touchdown,” he said.

Joseph says too fast a rate of descent can lead to a hard landing, and “possibly impose structural damage to the aircraft.”

Videos of the incident show the plane bursting into flames upon landing at Pearson before ultimately ending up on its back, something Joseph noted was “very rare.”

Joseph says weather was also a factor, with strong winds reported at the time.

“Again, the very challenging gusty wind conditions that prevailed at the time of the mishap look like they would have contributed significantly to the workload of the pilots.” 

“But again, clearly the rate of descent simply has to be arrested prior to touchdown.”

He adds that videos can be deceiving, depending on the angle they are shot at, but “at first blush it appears that that rate of descent does not look like it was mitigated prior to touchdown.”

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WATCH: Video shows Delta flight crash and roll over upon arrival in Toronto

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President and Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA), Deborah Flint, said on Tuesday that the cause of the crash remains under investigation and noted that it was too early to speculate on the circumstances.

Delta Air Lines confirmed that 21 injured passengers were initially transported to local hospitals. As of Tuesday morning, 19 have been released.

The flight was carrying 76 passengers and four crew.

‘Miraculous’ that no one died

Joseph called it “miraculous” that no one was killed in the crash and said crews did a great job evacuating passengers, especially under the unique circumstances of the plane being upside down.

“It looks like the cabin crew and safety supervisors at the back of the aircraft did an extraordinary job of getting the passengers off the aircraft.

“It is very rare that an aircraft would arrive at the mishap site on its back … and that turns everything literally upside down with the normal strategy to evacuate the airplane.

“The flight attendants did a great job of evacuating the passengers.”

‘Hanging like bats’

Some of the rattled passengers spoke to CNN after escaping the harrowing crash.

“When we hit, it was just super hard. It hit the ground, and the plane went sideways,” passenger John Nelson told the network. “It’s amazing that we’re still here.”

“Even now I smell like jet fuel.”

“We hit the ground, and we were sideways,” added passenger Pete Koukov. “And then we were upside down hanging like bats.”

With files from Lucas Casaletto and The Canadian Press.