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After watching videos of a Delta Air Lines jet catch fire upon landing and flip over on a Toronto runway, it’s fair to wonder how anyone could have survived. But aviation experts said it was not surprising that all 76 passengers and four crew walked away from Monday’s disaster, with 21 people suffering minor injuries and only one still hospitalized on Wednesday. It’s a credit, they said, to advances in plane design as well as a crew that flawlessly executed an evacuation plan. “When I first saw (footage of) that aircraft upside down at the airport, I was like: How can that happen? And how can anybody survive that? Michael McCormick, an assistant professor and program coordinator for air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, said. It was absolutely astounding to watch the people actually climbing out. Passenger jet design a factor McCormick and others said the fact that there were only minor injuries shows that passenger jet design and engineering have greatly improved over time. Fuel tanks are stored in the wings, so the wings are designed to break off in a crash to remove a seriously explosive hazard, he said. The tail-like fin of a plane known as a vertical stabilizer is frangible or easily broken meaning an aircraft that has flipped over can stay flat on the ground and passengers and crew are able to evacuate, he said. Aviation is and remains the safest form of transportation,” McCormick said, adding that it was no fluke 80 people were able to walk away from the Toronto crash. “That is because the safety of aviation is constantly improving. Jeff Guzzetti, an airline safety consultant and a former investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, said the seats and seat belts also helped to prevent fatalities. He noted that passenger jet seats are designed to withstand impacts of up to 16 times the force of gravity and that the seat belts restrained the passengers who were suspended upside down as the plane slid to a halt on the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport. The odds of getting injured or killed in an commercial airline accident is far less than driving in your car, Guzzetti said. Crew executed the evacuation plan Experts also credited the crew, who calmly and quickly shepherded many of the passengers off the plane before emergency crews even arrived on the scene. Deborah Flint, CEO of Greater Toronto Airports Authority, called the flight crew heroes, while their boss, Delta CEO Ed Bastian, praised their response as a “testament to the safety thats embedded in the systems. Its horrifying. When you look at the video you can imagine when I received the text minutes after it happened, hearing that there was a regional jet upside down on an active runway with 80 people on board, how I felt without knowing it, what was transpiring,” Bastian said in an interview with CBS Mornings. But the reality is that safety is embedded into our system, he said. “Air travel in the United States is the safest form of transportation and travel there is. Period. And its because we train for events like this. What was it like inside the cabin? Flight 4819 from Minneapolis to Toronto, operated by Delta subsidiary Endeavor Air, crashed on landing around 2:30 p.m. Monday. Videos show the plane hitting the runway hard, bursting into flames then skidding along the tarmac and flipping over. It was very uncomfortable, a very just solid, uncomfortable experience forceful on the impact, sideways movement and suddenly just inverted,” Peter Carlson, a paramedic who was traveling to Toronto for a conference, told The Associated Press. The only mission was to get out.” Carlson was awarded at the paramedics conference for his courageous and meritorious actions in helping other passengers. The certificate says his actions preserved life, reduced injury and provided calm. I have a laceration, abrasion, some bruises on my legs, some bruises on my ribs, but alive,” Carlson said. “Everyone is alive. I don’t know if I am deserving of going into miracle territory but it’s amazing. Other videos appear to show passengers scrambling out of an upside-down cabin as workers assist them off the plane onto the snowy tarmac and emergency crews hose the aircraft with water. Passengers take action Some passengers who have been harmed as a result of the crash retained the law firm Rochon Genova, according to Vincent Genova, head of the company’s Aviation Litigation Group. Our clients, similar to many other passengers, suffered personal injuries of a serious nature that required hospital attention, Genova said in a statement. With our involvement, we expect to reach a timely and fair resolution for these clients and others who reach out to us. A spokesperson for Delta confirmed it has offered each passenger $30,000 and is telling customers this gesture has no strings attached and does not affect rights. A Canadian investigator refused to comment on preliminary theories, although aviation experts told The Associated Press they will likely consider weather conditions, as well as the possibility of human error or an aircraft malfunction. At this point, its far too early to say what the cause of this accident might be, Ken Webster, a senior investigator for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, said in a video statement Tuesday. He said investigators will examine the wreckage and runway, and that the cockpit voice and flight data recorders are being analyzed. TSB announced Wednesday afternoon that crews were moving the wreckage from the runway to a hangar for further examination. Michael Casey, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
The chief executive of streaming giant Netflix on Thursday announced a $1 billion investment to produce some 20 films and TV series in Mexico annually over the next four years. Speaking at President Claudia Sheinbaum‘s morning press conference in Mexico City, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said he looked forward to entering more partnerships with producers in the Latin American nation. Sheinbaum said the investments in the film industry should produce many jobs beyond immediate production needs, such as hospitality for actors and crew members, fashion designers and also spur tourism. “It’s an industry that gives a lot of mileage to the economy,” Sheinbaum said. “It’s not only important for Mexico to be seen in the world, but also because of the economic development and jobs generated by a production.” Netflix has invested in Mexican productions such as “Club de Cuervos,” a comedy-drama about the politics of a local soccer club, 2018’s “Roma,” the first Mexican entry to win the Oscar for best non-English language film, and last year’s “Pedro Paramo.” “Pedro Paramo,” an adaptation of Juan Rulfo’s classic 1955 novel, required the support of hundreds of artists and musicians and the production of some 5,000 traditional textile items, Sarandos said, adding that the book’s sales later tripled. Netflix has already agreed to collaborate with Mexico City’s Estudios Churubusco, one of Latin America’s longest-running film studios, Sarandos said. He added that Netflix plans to fund programs to help talent behind the camera break into the industry, and that Mexico’s geographical variety makes it a good location for filming. Last year, Netflix bought the rights to Oscar-nominated “Emilia Perez,” a French-made musical about a trans Mexican drug lord, which garnered much criticism in Mexico over cultural stereotypes, poor Spanish, lack of Mexican actors and a light treatment of the issue of forced disappearances – and spawned a Mexican-made parody in retaliation. “Emilia Perez” began screening in Mexican cinemas nearly half a year after its European release date, and Mexico’s consumer watchdog had to order a top cinema chain to clarify its guarantee refund policy after many spectators walked out of the movie. ($1 = 20.3374 Mexican pesos) Sarah Morland and Aida Pelaez-Fernandez, Reuters
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E-Commerce
The Senate on Thursday narrowly voted to confirm Kash Patel as director of the FBI, moving to place him atop the nation’s premier federal law enforcement agency despite doubts from Democrats about his qualifications and concerns he will do Donald Trump‘s bidding and go after the Republican president’s adversaries. I cannot imagine a worse choice,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., told colleagues before the 51-49 vote by the GOP-controlled Senate. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the lone Republican holdouts. A Trump loyalist who has fiercely criticized the agency, Patel will inherit an FBI gripped by turmoil as the Justice Department over the past month has forced out a group of senior bureau officials and made a highly unusual demand for the names of thousands of agents who participated in investigations related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Patel has spoken of his desire to implement major changes at the FBI, including a reduced footprint at headquarters in Washington and a renewed emphasis on the bureau’s traditional crime-fighting duties rather than the intelligence-gathering and national security work that has come to define its mandate over the past two decades. But he also echoed Trump’s desire for retribution. Patel raised alarm among Democrats for saying before he was nominated that he would come after anti-Trump conspirators in the federal government and the media. Republicans angry over what they see as law enforcement bias against conservatives during the Democratic Biden administration, as well as criminal investigations into Trump, have rallied behind Patel as the right person for the job. Mr. Patel wants to make the FBI accountable once again - get back the reputation that the FBI has had historically for law enforcement, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said before Patel was confirmed. He wants to hold the FBI accountable to Congress, to the president and, most importantly, to the people they serve the American taxpayer. Democrats complained about Patel’s lack of management experience compared with previous FBI directors and they highlighted incendiary past statements that they said called his judgment into question. I am absolutely sure of this one thing: this vote will haunt anyone who votes for him. They will rue the day they did it, said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. He added: To my Republican colleagues, think about what you will tell your constituents and family about why you became voted for this person who will so completely and utterly disgrace this office and do such grave damage to our nations justice system. About a half-dozen Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee gathered outside FBI headquarters earlier Thursday in a last-ditch plea to derail his confirmation. This is someone we cannot trust, said Sen. Adam Schiff of California. This is someone who lacks the character to do this job, someone who lacks the integrity to do this job. We know that, our Republican colleagues know that.” Patel’s eyebrow-raising remarks on hundreds of podcasts and in other interviews over the past four years include referring to law enforcement officials who investigated Trump as criminal gangsters,” saying some Jan. 6 rioters were political prisoners and proposing to shut down the FBI headquarters and turning it into a museum for the so-called deep state. At his Senate hearing in January, Patel said Democrats were taking some of his comments out of context or misunderstanding the broader point that he was trying to make. Patel has also denied the idea that a list in book he authored of government officials who he said were part of a deep state amounted to an enemies list, calling that a total mischaracterization. FBI directors are given 10-year terms as a way to insulate them from political influence and keep them from becoming beholden to a particular president or administration. Patel was selected in November to replace Christopher Wray, who was picked by Trump in 2017 and served for more than seven years but who repeatedly angered the president and was seen by him as insufficiently loyal. He resigned before Trump took office. Since Wray’s resignation, the FBI has been led by interim leaders, who have clashed with the Justice Department over its demands for details about the agents who investigated the Capitol riot a move seen as a possible prelude to broader firings. Patel denied having any knowledge of discussions about potential firings, but a letter from Durbin last week that cited information that he said had come from insiders suggested that Patel may have been covertly involved in that process. Trump has said that he expects some of those agents will be fired. Patel is a former federal defender and Justice Department counterterrorism prosecutor. He attracted Trumps attention during the president’s first term when, as a staffer on the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee, Patel helped write a memo with pointed criticism of the FBIs investigation into ties between Russia and Trumps 2016 campaign. Patel later joined Trumps administration, both as a counterterrorism official at the National Security Council and as chief of staff to the defense secretary. Eric Tucker, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
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