THE Delta Air Lines flight that crash-landed belly-up on the tarmac in Toronto was descending at a high rate of speed before suffering a broken landing gear, according to a preliminary report.
The shocking caught-on-camera crash occurred on February 17 as the commercial flight, carrying 80 passengers and crew members, was touching down at Toronto Pearson International Airport in .
Upon impact with the runway, the main right landing gear broke, the undercarriage retracted, and the wing detached, before a "cloud of jet fuel" sparked a fire, a preliminary report by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada read.
"The exact sequence of these events is still to be determined by future examination of the fracture surfaces," the report read.
About 3.6 seconds before touchdown, the speed of descent increased at approximately 2:12:40.
The Canadian safety board said a second later the plane's safety warning system went off inside the aircraft about 2.6 seconds before landing.
The alarm cautioned the pilots they were descending quickly, according to the safety board's findings.
Then, 1.6 seconds before touchdown, the plane was "slightly below the glide slope" - a system that guides an aircraft down to the runway during landing for a controlled descent.
At 2:12:43, the right main landing gear of the plane touched down on the runway.
Upon impact, the landing gear fractured causing the aircraft to flip and erupt into a fireball on the icy tarmac as its passengers and crew were left hanging "like bats," one passenger said.
The report described how the cockpit door was jammed shut, which forced the pilots to climb through an emergency hatch located on the ceiling of the cockpit.
The official cause of the crash has not been determined.
At least 21 people were injured in the dramatic event, which showed passengers crawling and climbing out of the aircraft in frigid temperatures.
Nine Canadian passengers have filed a lawsuit against , claiming its crew members were "inadequately trained and supervised" by Delta and Endeavor Air.
"The crew failed to observe the most fundamental procedures for a landing approach into [Pearson], failed to appropriately monitor flight conditions on approach, and failed [to] communicate and react in the cockpit to those conditions," the lawsuit read, according to .
The lawsuit claims the nine passengers continue to suffer from "extreme bodily and mental injuries."
The suit was filed in a Minneapolis district courthouse on March 14.
Passenger Peter Koukov recalled how he did not see anything wrong with the descent until the plane hit the ground.
Koukov told at the time that once the aircraft came to a standstill, the strapped passengers "were upside down hanging like bats."
"When we got finished, I was upside down, everybody else was there as well," John Nelson, a second passenger on the aircraft, told the outlet.
A number of recent plane crashes in the US have left Americans terrified of traveling by air.
However, aviation expert and attorney Jason Matzus told The U.S. Sun the crashes can be attributed to "random clustering."
"While these events are tragic, the likely explanation is simply 'random clustering,' which occurs when multiple crashes occur over a short period, warping our general perception and causing us to think that there is an increasing trend in plane crashes," Matzus said.
"When in reality these crashes, despite being so close together, are merely coincidental and not caused by a systemic safety issue."
The short period Matzus is referring to is just a matter of three weeks. The recent aviation mishaps include:
January 29 - A military helicopter and American Airlines plane collided at the Washington DC airport and killed 67 people
January 31 - An air ambulance carrying a six-year-old girl and her mom crashed onto a street in Philadelphia, killing seven people in total
February 5 - A Japan Airlines flight hit a parked Delta plane at Seattle SeaTac Airport and no one was injured
February 6 - A small commuter plane on its way to Nome, Alaska, crashed and killed all 10 people on board
February 10 - Motley Crue singer Vince Neil's private jet collided into another plane, killing the pilot and injuring four others
February 17 - A Delta plane crashed onto the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport, miraculously killing no one but injuring 21
February 19 - Two planes collided at Marana Airport in Arizona, killing two people
February 24 - Smoke filled a Delta Airlines flight cabin, forcing passengers to evacuate by an emergency slide after making an emergency landing in Atlanta.
March 9 - A Beechcraft Bonanza aircraft crashed into a retirement village parking lot in Manheim, Pennsylvania.
March 13 - An American Airlines' jet engine erupted into flames at the Denver airport, forcing passengers to escape onto the plane's wing.
"We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible."
The Canadian Transportation Safety Board said further analysis would be done on the aircraft's wing structure, hand landings, and the pilots' training.
"This is a complex, investigation, with many areas still requiring a deeper dive before drawing a conclusion," TSBC Chair Yoan Marier said on Thursday.
Delta said it would offer $30,000 USD to each passenger on the flight with no strings attached.
The airline company said it will continue to cooperate with investigators on the matter.
"For everyone at Endeavor Air and Delta, nothing is more important than the safety of our customers and our people," Delta Air Lines said in a statement to CNN.
"That's why we remain fully engaged as participants in the investigation led by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.
"Out of respect for the integrity of this work that will continue through their final report, Endeavor Air and Delta will refrain from comment."
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