Delays at Toronto's Pearson airport continued Wednesday as investigators worked to determine the cause of the fiery crash landing of a Delta Air Lines plane and crews began removing parts of the wreckage.
Two of Pearson's five runways, including the "busiest" in Canada, remain 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.
Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian praised the actions of first responders and the flight crew, while seeking to reassure nervous flyers.
"It's horrifying when you look at the video," he said in an interview Wednesday with "CBS Mornings."
"But the reality is that safety is embedded into our system. Air travel in the United States is the safest form of transportation and travel there is – period – and it's because we train for events like this."
He called the crew operating the flight "experienced," adding that all pilots train for the conditions encountered Monday.
The airline said 20 of the 21 passengers initially sent to local hospitals had been released as of Wednesday morning.
The Transportation Safety Board has said it's too soon to tell what led to the crash.
Kit Darby, a U.S.-based veteran aviator and flight instructor, suggested in an interview with The Canadian Press that gusty winds and possible mechanical issues with the landing gear may have been contributing factors in Monday's crash.
A Toronto law firm specializing in aviation cases was retained by two Canadian passengers, said Vincent Genova, a partner at Rochon Genova. The firm also represents family members of passengers who were on the Ukraine International Airlines flight shot down over Tehran in 2020.
Genova said both clients in the Delta crash had suffered injuries, including one who he said went back to the hospital Wednesday over a possible head injury when the seatbelts released. Genova said he was also working with an American firm retained by U.S. clients.
"We're probably going to start our own investigation to determine if there are any other parties that should be involved in potential litigation moving forward," he said in an interview.
