*

CEO Bastian says flight crew had trained in wintry

conditions

like those on Monday

*

Delta says 20 of 21 passengers been released from

hospitals

*

Delta says it is offering $30,000 goodwill payments to all

passengers

(Adds Delta statement that plane removed from runway in

paragraph 7)

By David Shepardson

Feb 19 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines ( DAL ) CEO Ed

Bastian said on Wednesday the pilots of the regional jet that

flipped upside down upon landing in Toronto this week were

experienced and familiar with flying in wintry conditions.

"There is one level of safety at Delta," Bastian told "CBS

Mornings" in an interview. "All these pilots train for these

conditions."

On Monday, the day of the crash, Toronto Pearson Airport was

dealing with high winds and frigid temperatures as airlines

attempted to rebound after a major weekend snowstorm.

Bastian called video of the accident, which injured 21 of

the 80 people on board, "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."

Delta said on Wednesday only one of the 21 passengers

remains hospitalized. All of the injured are expected to

survive.

The plane was removed from its runway location on Wednesday

evening, Delta said.

The airline said it was offering $30,000 goodwill payments

to all passengers that would not impact their legal rights,

including their ability to sue the carrier.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in a statement

that investigators were conducting interviews and had downloaded

data from the recovered black boxes that was being analyzed.

Two runways remain closed at Toronto's Pearson Airport,

including the busiest runway in the country, with the wreckage

of the 16-year-old CRJ900 regional jet made by Canada's

Bombardier still on airport grounds.

Investigators will examine the runway before the site is

cleaned up and released to the airport for a return to

operations, TSB said.

The crash reduced capacity at Canada's largest airport,

which has a limit on departures for its three other operational

runways, Toronto Pearson duty manager Jake Keating told news

channel CP24.

Toronto Pearson said in a post on X that as of 7 a.m. ET

(1200 GMT) on Wednesday, about 5% of its departing flights and

6% of its arriving flights have been canceled.

TSB senior investigator Ken Webster said that following

initial impact on the runway, parts of the CRJ900 aircraft

separated and a fire ensued.

In a 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.

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.

Bastian said despite several high-profile incidents, air

travel remains safe. "It is the safest form of transportation,

period," he said.

The crash in Canada followed other recent crashes in North

America. An Army helicopter collided with a CRJ-700 passenger

jet in Washington, D.C., killing 67 people, while at least seven

people died when a medical transport plane crashed in

Philadelphia and 10 were killed in a passenger plane crash in

Alaska.

Separately, Bastian said he had spoken to U.S.

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.