Toronto plane crash: Delta offers payment to victims amid investigation of plane that flipped upside down
The offer 'has no strings attached,' Delta says
Plane crashes, flips upside down at Toronto Pearson Airport
Footage from Mark Fitzpatrick shows the plane lying upside down and emergency services responding. (Mark Fitzpatrick via Storyful)
Delta Air Lines is offering a five-figure sum to the 80 passengers aboard the flight that crashed in Toronto earlier this week.
Delta Air Lines confirmed the plans to provide $30,000 to each victim — 76 passengers and four crew members — to FOX Business on Wednesday. A spokesperson noted that the gesture "has no strings attached and does not affect rights." In total, the payouts would cost Delta a little over $2 million.
The news comes days after Delta Connection flight 4819, operated by Endeavor Air, crashed while landing at Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday. No fatalities were reported, though 21 people were injured, including three who were critically wounded. The flight had departed from Minneapolis–St. Paul Airport earlier that day.
Stunning photos of the scene show the mangled, burned CRJ-900 jet upside down on the tarmac. Everyone on the plane was quickly evacuated, with some managing to carry out their luggage.
Still, outrage and snarky comments littered social media, including one from an account known as American Papa Bear who said, "'Here is 30K, please don't sue us for millions!" - Delta Airlines'" in a thread.
Another X user, Greg, stated, "Delta is offering a $30 gift card and an extra bag of pretzels to all passengers who were on the airplane that flipped over."
DELTA CEO HINTS AT WHEN FLYING TAXIS WILL BE THE REAL DEAL
First responders work at the Delta Air Lines plane crash site at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, on Monday. (Reuters/Arlyn McAdorey / Reuters)
The Toronto incident is one of several aviation disasters in recent months. One hundred seventy-nine people in South Korea died when a Jeju Air flight crashed into an airport's concrete barrier, and a crash involving an Azerbaijan Airlines plane killed 38 people and injured 29 on Christmas.
In North America, 67 people died near Washington, D.C. on Jan. 29 when a military Black Hawk helicopter collided with an American Airlines-affiliated commercial flight from Kansas. In February, 10 people died after a commuter plane crashed off the coast of Alaska.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE VICTIMS OF THE PHILADELPHIA CRASH
Passengers gather near the Delta Air Lines check-in desk at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport in St. Paul, Minnesota, after a Delta plane, which departed Minneapolis, crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday. (Reuters/Tim Evans / Reuters)
Some have blamed the White House's budget cuts for the recent disasters. On Wednesday, Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastion told "CBS Mornings" that he doubted President Donald Trump's cuts to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would negatively impact airline safety.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DAL | DELTA AIR LINES INC. | 59.98 | -3.77 | -5.91% |
"I've been in close communication with the Secretary of Transportation. I understand that the cuts at this time are something that are raising questions, but the reality is there's over 50,000 people that work at the FAA. And the cuts, I understand, were 300 people, and they were in non-critical safety functions," Bastian said.
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
Ed Bastian, CEO of Delta Air Lines Inc., speaks at the Hope Global Forums annual meeting in Atlanta on Dec. 11, 2023. (Dustin Chambers/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
"The Trump administration has committed to investing deeply in terms of improving the overall technologies that are used in the air traffic control systems and modernizing the skies," the executive added. "They've committed to hiring additional controllers and investigators, and safety investigators. So no, I'm not concerned with that at all."
FOX Business' Kristine Parks contributed to this report.