The day after the Delta Flight 4819 crash on Feb. 17 at Toronto Pearson International Airport, the damaged aircraft remained on the runway as the crash investigation ramped up.
Whether it was due to luck, skill, heroism or aircraft design, the evacuation of passengers took place quickly and everyone aboard the ill-fated flight were able to exit the plane and make it on to the tarmac.
Post-accident investigations will provide more details about what contributed to the accident, and the strengths and weaknesses of the emergency response. But one point is already obvious: the positive outcome speaks to the importance of the institutions and expertise that keep our aviation system safe overall.
The response
The response to Delta Flight 4819 air crash was an example of just how important inter-agency collaboration is in emergency response.
Within minutes of the crash, not only were the airport’s firefighters on the scene to douse any flames and assist with the rescue of passengers, but other agencies were already providing aid. Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services sent six vehicles to the airport as part of the mutual aid effort.
Ornge, Ontario’s air ambulance system, also sent multiple units to the scene to help transport injured passengers to hospitals, aiding Peel Region paramedics who were also triaging passengers.
Multiple agencies collaborated to save lives. This collaboration in emergency response isn’t developed on the fly, but instead follows a highly choreographed and practised set of plans.
Both the airport and partner agencies maintain air crash emergency response plans that lay out the details of how help will be requested, where aid will arrive and how to scale up the response as needed.
Preparation facilitates response
A primary reason the air crash response worked so well was preparation. An important component of preparation at airports is regularly testing response plans and operations with specialized full-scale mock disaster exercises.
In these exercises, airport response personnel work through scenarios that simulate emergencies. Real emergency equipment is tested, volunteer victims participate in search-and-rescue scenarios and theatrical make-up is even used to simulate injuries.
These exercises serve multiple purposes, including increasing familiarity with the plan for responders and creating real challenges that will help to find any potential weaknesses in the plan before a real event.
Practice saves lives
Another less desirable way responses can be improved is for an actual disaster to happen. Actual air crash disasters force plans to be activated, require response actions to be taken, and — ideally — foster adaptive learning through hard-won experience.
According to data from the Aviation Safety Network, there have been 23 aircraft accidents at or near Pearson Airport since 1939. As a testament to safety at Pearson, no casualties occurred in 18 of those 23 accidents.
One past significant Pearson crash with no casualties is especially relevant to revisit now. In August 2005, Air France Flight 358 rolled off the runway during landing and caught fire.
All 309 people on board evacuated and survived. An organizational analysis of the 2005 accident highlighted that the crash investigation report “praised the seamless tracking of events and communication between the parties involved” in response.
Twenty years later, and Pearson CEO Deborah Flint said the crew, airport emergency workers and first responders mounted a “textbook response” to the Delta incident.
An investigation begins
While the immediate response may have been over fairly quickly after passengers were successfully evacuated, the mutual aid and collaboration between agencies will continue in the months ahead.
The Transportation Safety Board (TSB) has already launched an investigation into the incident. The cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been retrieved from the wreckage, a key aspect in what will be a slow and methodical investigation.
The integrity of the investigation depends on strong institutions and trust in experts. In the context of air crashes, lessons learned from these investigations are critical to improving airline procedures for maintaining safety, creating better regulation to avoid accidents in the first place and ensuring emergency systems are well prepared.
Safety in aviation
According to the most recent TSB data, the 2023 overall air transportation accident rate of 2.8 per 100,000 aircraft movements is among the lowest recorded by the federal agency since it began measuring in 2004.
Within the first 24 hours after the Delta crash, a pivot from the emergency response phase to the investigation phase took place.
It’s far too early to speculate on what the ultimate cause of the accident may have been. While learning about what contributed to the crash of Delta Flight 4819 is important, we can also seek comfort in the fact that air travel in Canada continues to be a safe activity for passengers.
Jack L. Rozdilsky receives support for research communication and public scholarship from York University. He also has received research support from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
