The pilot explains the “vanishingly rare” risk that a plane will turn over

A Delta Airlines aircraft freaked out onto his back after the appearance at Toronto.

Exceptional footage shows that the commercial jet is on the icy runway on the icy runway, broken off with one of its wings. There were no deaths in the incident, although at least 18 people were critically injured.

The details of the Toronto crash are still unclear, so that we cannot yet build a definitive picture of how exactly this happened. In a statement, Delta said that the managing director of the airline Jim Graham and other members of the management team were on their way to Toronto to “ensure full cooperation with the investigators”.

Brian Smith, a pilot with decades of experience that fly for freight and large commercial airlines, analyzed the videos, the photos and the available flight data. This is his attitude to what took place on Monday on the icy runway at Toronto Airport.

Has something like that happened before?

“Fortunately, events like this in which the aircraft is overwhelmed are negligible. They are almost always related to the severity of the effects on the soil and the attitude [the position of wings and nose in relation to the horizon] of the aircraft, ”says Smith.

“An earlier and very remarkable case was United Airlines Flight 232, a DC10 that crashed in Sioux City in July 1989 The crew had to rely on the remaining two engines on the differential boost to try to control the flight route of the aircraft. When it landed, the aircraft carter cycled a fireball and the spread of the fuselage. “

Of the 296 people on board, 112 died in the accident.

What exactly means that an airplane turns on the head?

“In this case, the plane seems to have suffered a very difficult landing in which the manufacturer’s limit for the sales rate has been exceeded,” says Smith, admitting that this is speculative while we are waiting for further information. “Usually this is more than 650 to 700 feet per minute or a G-force of more than 2.6. The result is that the left wing snapped and “folded”, immediately followed by an explosion and a large black smoking stand that hides the subsequent overturn moment. The chassis seems to have been demolished at least partially. “

Credit: X

What causes a hard landing?

Smith says: “Hard landings are often the result of an unstable approach, which in simple words means that one or more parameters are outside of acceptable limits: either speed, relegation rate or performance setting is the most likely. In the videos I have seen, there seems to be no “torch”, the point directly above the runway, where the aircraft is slightly excited, while the thrust is reduced to arrest the relegation rate and to activate softer landing . “

Did the weather conditions play a role?

“The weather conditions were” sporty “, but not insurmountable: strong winds at 28 knots with gusts up to 35 knots (32 to 40 km / h), with the wind about 40 degrees from the runway,” says Smith. “The runway surface was partly covered with snow, but otherwise free of contamination.”

Have you ever come across such a scenario?

Smith says: “I never came across this scenario. The landscapes with the Precks are treated with caution, since there is a higher risk of beating the tail or a wing tip, but the pilots are trained in detail during their two-year simulator sessions in the techniques. I would point out that as soon as it suffers such a catastrophic contact, an airplane does not give control through the flight deck. It is in the hands of inertia and physics until it goes to rest. “