A passenger plane carrying 80 people has flipped upon landing at the busy Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada, injuring at least eight people, one critically.
A child is reportedly among those who are badly wounded.
“Emergency teams are responding. All passengers and crew are accounted for,” the airport posted on social media on Monday.
The botched landing came as Toronto continued to weather heavy wind and snow amid a winter storm. Over the weekend, an estimated 22 centimetres (8.6 inches) of snow blanketed the airport, in addition to snowfall from the week before.
The upended flight originated from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was run by the United States company Delta Airlines.
Emergency rescue workers were seen rushing to the scene as the plane sat belly up on the tarmac.
“We just landed. Our plane crashed. It’s upside down,” one passenger explains on a cellphone video he recorded as he exited the upturned aircraft. “Most people appear to be OK.”
Constable Sarah Patten of the Peel Regional Police in Ontario said first responders were still ascertaining the circumstances surrounding the crash.
“It is my understanding that most of the passengers are out and unharmed, but we’re still trying to make sure, so we’re still on scene investigating,” Patten said.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada also announced it was “deploying a team to investigate” how the accident occurred.
A union representing flight attendants said its members were “working on this flight”.
“Reports are there are no fatalities,” the Association of Flight Attendants said in a post on X. “Please do not speculate on this incident as everyone works to gather information and support those involved.”
Photos showed the Mitsubishi CRJ-900LR jet flipped on its back on the tarmac. Its wings appeared to be missing and smoke was rising from the rear portion of the plane.
The crash occurred as aviation insiders in the US reel from the mass layoffs in the country’s Federal Aviation Administration, including hundreds of probationary workers brought in to help with staffing shortfalls.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has maintained that thinning the federal workforce is necessary to reducing spending and peel back waste.
But the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union warned that such “draconian action” would hamper a workforce that is “already stretched thin”.
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