Over a dozen people were hurt when a commercial plane made a crash landing at Toronto's Pearson International Airport Monday afternoon, leading to continued concerns over the safety of air travel and lingering delays for people heading back to Canada from Boston.
This overturned plane is only the latest in a series of aviation disasters that have prompted concerns for travelers preparing for air travel.
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In Monday's incident, a Delta flight ended up upside down on the tarmac as it crash landed in Toronto. It was arriving from Minneapolis, and at least 18 onboard were injured.
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In January, an American Airlines regional jet and a military helicopter collided in the skies over Washington D.C. Days later, an air ambulance carrying six crashed near a mall in Northeast Philadelphia.
Earlier this month in Alaska, a regional flight crashed off a remote section of the state's western coast. And days ago, a 78-year-old pilot of a private plane died after crashing into another aircraft on a runway in Arizona.
This series of incidents in the sky are in the back of passengers' minds as they travel.
"It is nerve-racking — I'll be completely honest, it is nerve-racking," one man said.
"I really didn't feel safe at all today, because there's so much stuff going on," a woman added.
Aviation experts reminded the public that millions of passengers land safely everyday and that this seems to just be an unfortunate coincidence that these incidents have happened back to back.
"I think we're just in one of those series of bad luck incidents with the backdrop of the safety record this industry has had," aviation expert Thomas Kinton said. "It doesn't mean the industry is any less safe, but I just think it's a string of bad luck and I'm sure we're going to have another run of a very safe lengthy period of time."
Retired commercial airline pilot credits the flight attendants on the Delta flight for quick action that prevented the crash from becoming deadly.
"They focused back on their training. The slides were obviously of no use, they stood in the doors at risk to themselves and made sure every passenger was off the aircraft," he said.
Monday's crash in Toronto lead to several flights being canceled and delayed — one group of four friends has been trying since Monday night to get back to Toronto after watching hockey at TD Garden in Boston.
"We knew the second the flight crashed we were going to be cooked," one said, while another noted how thankful he was not to be on the crashed plane.
They had flights canceled Monday night and Tuesday morning, and are now booked on a flight for Thursday, but were hoping to get home sooner.
