Two high-profile crashes involving CRJ-series planes isn’t a sign the Montreal-designed aircraft are unsafe, according to an aviation safety group that says the planes’ engineering saved lives during a crash in Toronto earlier this week.
There were no fatalities when a Delta Air Lines CRJ-900 crashed at Pearson Airport Monday and flipping during landing. Twenty-one people were injured, and all have now been released from hospital.
The crash came weeks after a CRJ-700 collided with a United States Army helicopter in Washington D.C., killing all aboard. Another crash involving a small commuter jet earlier this month in Alaska killed 10 people.
“These accidents are unrelated, they’re each unique with unique circumstances,” said Hassan Shahidi, the president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation, a U.S.-based non-profit that advocates for aviation safety.
“The collision that occurred in Washington has nothing to do with what happened in Alaska, what happened in Toronto. These are completely independent of each other, and they’re being investigated to really understand the circumstances.”
Originally designed by Bombardier and made in Montreal, the CRJ regional jet program was acquired by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2020. Although Mitsubishi has stopped making CRJ-series planes, a Montreal-based subsidiary continues to provide maintenance, refurbishment and other services to operators.
Shahidi said the planes are well-engineered, including the seats, which he described as “top of the line.”
“That absolutely contributed to the great outcome we had the other day with the crash in Toronto, in terms of the passengers all surviving,” he said, describing CRJ jets as “very well built airplanes.”
CRJs are popular airplanes, particularly with regional carriers that fly shorter routes for larger airlines, Shahidi said. Of the approximately 1,900 built, around 1,300 are still in the air, with many of them flying in North America.
John Gradek, a lecturer and co-ordinator of Aviation Management Program at McGill University, said Mitsubishi has made a commitment to maintain the integrity of the CRJ jets and that if regulators had a concern about the planes, they wouldn’t be flying.
“If there was any doubt about the availability of parts or the quality of maintenance on these airplanes, it would have been flagged long ago,” he said.
The fact that no one was killed in the Toronto crash is a sign that a lot of things went right, he said, adding that flight attendants had ensured everyone was wearing their seatbelts.
The plane’s fuselage also held together, despite the aircraft shaking violently and flipping over, and emergency exits still opened.
“That fuselage protected passengers and crew marvellously, people walked away, which is absolutely amazing for a crash of that type,” he said.
The Washington, D.C. crash last month was the first fatal crash of a commercial plane in the U.S. since 2009, and Gradek said the last major incident in Toronto was an Air France crash.
No one died in that 2005 incident, when an Airbus jet overran the runway and caught fire, though 12 people were seriously injured.
But Gradek doesn’t think the recent fatalities after years when there were none is a sign that something has changed, but is rather a question of luck and probability.
“There’s no such thing as a risk-free operation, and risk does have probabilities and statistics associated with it,” he said.
Shahidi said he also doesn’t believe there are systemic problems with aviation safety in North America and that it remains safe to fly, adding that thousands of flights depart and land every day without incident.
“We have trained pilots and air traffic controllers who are doing their jobs very well, and so we do have a safe air transportation system in North America,” he said.
However, the union that represents around 130 Federal Aviation Administration workers who have been fired — part of a group of approximately 400 personal who were let go starting Friday as part of President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging cuts to the U.S. public service — said those layoffs included aviation safety assistants, maintenance mechanics and nautical information specialists.
While the Trump administration has said no critical safety personal or air traffic controllers lost their jobs, the Professional Aviation Specialists Association and laid-off workers have said the fired workers supported those safety-critical colleagues, who will now have to take on additional responsibilities.
With files from The Canadian Press and The Associated Press