Delta offers $30,000 each to Toronto plane crash passengers

WASHINGTON: US airline Delta will offer $30,000 to each passenger on a plane that crashed as it landed at Toronto airport this week, the carrier told AFP on Thursday. “This gesture has no strings attached and does not affect rights” of passengers, a company spokesman said.

On Monday, a Delta Air Lines plane that departed from the US city of Minneapolis, Minnesota, hit the runway hard at Toronto´s main airport and flipped upside down. A fireball and thick plumes of black smoke engulfed the plane as it skidded to a halt on its roof but none of the 80 people on board were killed.

Delta said 21 passengers were injured in the accident but only one was still hospitalized as of Wednesday morning. Paramedic services said emergency responders dealt with various injuries among the passengers, including back sprains, head injuries, anxiety and headaches.

Dramatic footage of the crash posted on social media and verified by AFP on Tuesday showed the Bombardier CRJ-900 coming in to land before slamming into the runway, then sliding forward in a roll, with its wings sheared off before it stopped on its back.