How Clever Design Helped Save 80 Lives in a Fiery Plane Crash

When Delta Flight 4819 from Minneapolis to Toronto crash-landed, losing a wing and flipping upside down, onlookers feared the worst. Yet, in what seemed like a miracle, all 80 passengers and crew survived Monday’s crash at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

Michael McCormick, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, saw something else: decades of aircraft safety advancements in action.

“That was absolutely phenomenal—to see an aircraft on its back like that and have people walking away from it,” McCormick said. “But my second thought was, well, that’s the design. That’s engineering. That’s the years of civil aviation research that made this possible.”

Fuel Tanks Are Primarily Stored in the Wings

Past aviation disasters have shown that jet fuel should be stored in the wings rather than beneath the passenger cabin.

“In the early days of aviation, fuel was stored in the belly of the aircraft,” McCormick explained. But when Delta’s Bombardier CRJ900 crash-landed, its fuel-laden right wing detached, sparking a massive fire yet keeping the flames outside the cabin as the aircraft skidded and flipped over.

According to aerospace engineer Joe Jacobsen, the wing detachment played a critical role in preventing a catastrophe. “Things can break, but if it’s within design requirements, then you have to see how it broke, and did it break according to design?” he said.

While investigators will determine whether the wing’s detachment was due to a maintenance issue or design feature, McCormick emphasized that separating fuel from passengers is a key safety principle. “We want to ensure the fuselage can come to rest in a stable position,” he said.

In this case, that stable position just happened to be upside down—but all passengers survived, in part due to the strength of modern aircraft seating.

16G Seats: Designed for Safety, Not Comfort

Modern commercial aircraft must be equipped with 16G seats, meaning they can withstand 16 times the force of gravity, McCormick explained.

“You don’t want seats to collapse or come loose in an accident—even if the aircraft is upside down,” he said. “These seats aren’t designed for comfort, they’re designed for durability in case of an emergency.”

Seat belts, often overlooked, also played a life-saving role in this crash.

“Without seat belts, passengers would have been thrown around and suffered far more injuries,” said Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation.

Aviation analyst Peter Goelz noted that had this accident happened decades ago, the outcome would likely have been far worse.

“What’s changed is that all commercial aircraft have seats that are locked in place on the tracks as part of the fuselage, capable of withstanding up to 16 Gs of impact,” said Goelz, a former managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board.

“That means if you’re strapped in correctly, you’ll survive the impact and have a chance to escape,” he said. “And when you combine that with advances in fire-retardant materials, your chances of survival increase significantly—if you follow instructions.”

Nothing Replaces Skilled Crew Members

While engineering advancements likely saved lives, McCormick emphasized that the real heroes were the flight attendants who executed a flawless evacuation.

“You cannot give enough credit to the cabin crew for safely evacuating that aircraft,” he said.

Flight attendants train for 90-second evacuations, but few have ever practiced it while hanging upside down. Yet, despite the chaos, the two flight attendants on Delta Flight 4819 managed to get everyone off the plane in less than 90 seconds.

“They performed their jobs perfectly. They were heroic,” said Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA.

McCormick hopes this incident reminds the public of the critical role flight attendants play beyond serving drinks and snacks.

“They are highly trained professionals responsible for passenger safety,” he said. “And they did a phenomenal job.”

Sources: AirGuide Business airguide.info, Michael McCormick, an associate professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University