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Three people critically injured, one of them a child

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Video shows plane belly up on snow-covered tarmac

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Toronto had been experiencing strong winds and snowstorm

By Allison Lampert and Ryan Patrick Jones

TORONTO, Feb 17 (Reuters) - A Delta Air Lines ( DAL )

regional jet flipped upside down upon landing at Canada's

Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday amid windy weather following a

snowstorm, injuring 18 of the 80 people on board, officials

said.

Three people on the flight that originated at

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport suffered critical

injuries, among them a child, authorities added.

U.S. carrier Delta said a CRJ900 aircraft operated by its

Endeavor Air subsidiary was involved in a single-aircraft

accident with 76 passengers and four crew members on board. The

16-year-old CRJ900, made by Canada's Bombardier and

powered by GE Aerospace engines, can seat up to 90

people.

Canadian authorities said they would investigate the cause

of the crash, which was not yet known.

Passenger John Nelson posted a video of the aftermath on

Facebook, showing a fire engine spraying water on the plane that

was lying belly-up on the snow-covered tarmac.

He later told CNN there was no indication of anything

unusual before landing.

"We hit the ground, and we were sideways, and then we were

upside down," Nelson told the television network.

"I was able to just unbuckle and sort of fall and push

myself to the ground. And then some people were kind of hanging

and needed some help being helped down, and others were able to

get down on their own," he said.

Pearson Airport said earlier on Monday it was dealing with

high winds and frigid temperatures as airlines attempted to

catch up with missed flights after a weekend snowstorm dumped

more than 22 cm (8.6 inches) of snow at the airport.

The Delta plane touched down in Toronto at 2:13 p.m. (1913

GMT) after an 86-minute flight and came to rest near the

intersection of runway 23 and runway 15, according to flight

tracking website FlightRadar24.

"The aircraft is upside down and burning," an emergency

worker told the air traffic control tower after a controller

noted that some passengers were walking near the crashed plane,

according to a recording of the incident posted on liveatc.net.

Deborah Flint, president of the Toronto airport, attributed

to the absence of fatalities in part to the work of first

responders at the airport.

"We are very grateful that there is no loss of life and

relatively minor injuries," she said at a press conference.

Michael J. McCormick, associate professor of air traffic

management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said the

upside-down position made the crash fairly unique.

"But the fact that 80 people survived an event like this is

a testament to the engineering and the technology, the

regulatory background that would go into creating a system where

somebody can actually survive something that not too long ago

would have been fatal," he said.

AIRPORT DELAYS

All 18 of the people injured were passengers and were taken

to area hospitals, Delta said in a statement.

Of those injured, two were airlifted to trauma centers, and

a child was transported to a children's hospital, said

Supervisor Lawrence Saindon of Peel Regional Paramedic Services.

The Toronto airport was shut down for more than two hours

before departures and arrivals resumed. This led to ground

delays and diversions to other airports including

Montreal-Trudeau International Airport, which said it was

preparing to receive several diverted flights that might cause

further delays.

Flint said on Monday evening there would be some operational

impact and delays at Toronto airport over the next few days

while two runways remained closed for the investigation.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said it was

deploying a team of investigators, and the U.S. National

Transportation Safety Board said a team of investigators would

assist Canada's TSB.

Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries ( MHVYF ), which closed a

deal to buy the CRJ aircraft program from Bombardier in 2020,

said it was aware of the incident and would fully cooperate with

the investigation.

The crash in Canada followed other recent crashes in North

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

jet in Washington, 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.