Delta offers US$30,000 to each passenger on plane that crashed while landing in Toronto
Although some of the passengers were seriously injured, the airline says that the amount being offered is the same for every customer on board
Delta Air Lines is offering US$30,000 to passengers who were on the plane that crashed at Toronto’s Pearson airport earlier this week, with a company spokesperson saying the money “has no strings attached and does not affect rights.”
Although some of the passengers were seriously injured, Morgan Durrant said in an email Wednesday that the amount being offered was the same for every customer.
Meanwhile, delays at Pearson airport continued as investigators worked to determine the cause of the plane’s fiery crash landing and crews began removing parts of the wreckage.
Two of Pearson’s five runways, including the “busiest” in Canada, remained closed, said the airport’s duty manager Jake Keating. The airport had capped departures throughout the day and a similar step had been taken to manage arrivals.
“This is put in place in an effort to sort of make sure that we’re not overwhelming the airfield and making sure that we’re maximizing our capabilities on the available runways that we have,” he said in an interview with TV station CP24 Wednesday morning.
The airport’s website listed dozens of cancelled and delayed flights Wednesday. Sunwing Airlines said in a statement that it had to cancel several southbound flights departing from Pearson in order to “prioritize the safe return of customers” currently delayed in various destinations.
Once the Delta plane wreckage is removed, Keating said delays would likely persist as the airport inspected the runway to make sure “everything is still in working order.”
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said Wednesday that the aircraft wreckage will be moved to a hangar at Pearson airport “to be examined further” and that its investigators will also examine the runway before it’s reopened. Investigators had already recovered the plane’s black box on Tuesday, and the agency said they will continue to interview people for the next several days as part of the probe.
All 76 passengers and four crew members survived Monday when Delta Flight 4819, operated by its subsidiary Endeavor, crashed at Pearson.
Video shows the jet made a hard landing then tipped over, creating a fireball as its wing scraped along the ground before it went belly-up and came to a stop in a cloud of smoke. Emergency crews doused the plane as passengers climbed out of emergency exits and onto the snow-swept tarmac.
Though some of the passengers were seriously injured, the airline says that the amount being offered is the same for every customer on board
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