TORONTO — A Delta Air Lines regional jet flipped upside down upon landing at Canada’s Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday amid windy weather following a snowstorm, injuring 18 of the 80 people on board, officials said.

Three people on flight DL4819 from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport suffered critical injuries, among them a child, a Canadian air ambulance official said, with 15 others also immediately taken to hospitals.

Some of the injured have since been released, Delta said late on Monday.

The US carrier said a CRJ900 aircraft operated by its Endeavor Air subsidiary was involved in a single-aircraft accident with 76 passengers and four crew members on board.

The 16-year-old CRJ900, made by Canada’s Bombardier and powered by GE Aerospace engines, can seat up to 90 people. At least one of the two wings was no longer attached to the plane, video showed after the accident.

Canadian authorities said they would investigate the cause of the crash, which was not yet known.

Passenger John Nelson posted a video of the aftermath on Facebook, showing a fire engine spraying water on the plane that was lying belly-up on the snow-covered tarmac.

He later told CNN there was no indication of anything unusual before landing.

“We hit the ground, and we were sideways, and then we were upside down,” Mr. Nelson told the television network.

“I was able to just unbuckle and sort of fall and push myself to the ground. And then some people were kind of hanging and needed some help being helped down, and others were able to get down on their own,” he said.

WEATHER CONDITIONS
Toronto Pearson Airport said earlier on Monday it was dealing with high winds and frigid temperatures as airlines attempted to catch up with missed flights after a weekend snowstorm dumped more than 22 cm (8.6 inches) of snow at the airport.

The Delta plane touched down in Toronto at 2:13 p.m. (1913 GMT) after an 86-minute flight and came to rest near the intersection of runway 23 and runway 15, FlightRadar24 data showed.

The reported weather conditions at time of the crash indicated a “gusting crosswind and blowing snow,” the flight tracking website said.

Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken said late on Monday the runway was dry and there were no crosswind conditions, but several pilots Reuters spoke to who had seen videos of the incident pushed back against this comment.

US aviation safety expert and pilot John Cox said there was an average crosswind of 19 knots (22 mph) from the right as it was landing, but he noted this was an average, and gusts would go up and down.

“It’s gusty so they are constantly going to have to be making adjustments in the air speed, adjustments in the vertical profile and adjustments in the lateral profile,” he said of the pilots, adding that “it’s normal for what professional pilots do.”

Investigators would try to figure out why the right wing separated from the plane, Mr. Cox said.

Michael J. McCormick, associate professor of air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said the upside-down position made the Toronto crash fairly unique.

“But the fact that 80 people survived an event like this is a testament to the engineering and the technology, the regulatory background that would go into creating a system where somebody can actually survive something that not too long ago would have been fatal,” he said.

Three previous cases of planes flipping over on landing involved McDonnell Douglas’s MD-11 model. In 2009, a FedEx freighter turned over on landing at Tokyo’s Narita airport killing both pilots. In 1999, a China Airlines flight inverted at Hong Kong, killing three of 315 occupants. In 1997, another FedEx freighter flipped over at Newark with no fatalities.

AIRPORT DELAYS
Flights have resumed at Toronto Pearson, but airport president Deborah Flint said on Monday evening there would be some operational impact and delays over the next few days while two runways remained closed for the investigation.

She attributed the absence of fatalities in part to the work of first responders at the airport.

“We are very grateful that there is no loss of life and relatively minor injuries,” she said at a press conference.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) said it was deploying a team of investigators, and the US National Transportation Safety Board said a team of investigators would assist Canada’s TSB.

Global aviation standards require a preliminary investigation report to be published within 30 days of an accident.

Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which closed a deal to buy the CRJ aircraft program from Bombardier in 2020, said it was aware of the incident and would fully cooperate with the investigation.

The crash in Canada followed other recent crashes in North America. An Army helicopter collided with a CRJ-700 passenger jet in Washington, DC, killing 67 people, while at least seven people died when a medical transport plane crashed in Philadelphia and 10 were killed in a passenger plane crash in Alaska. — Reuters

BANGKOK — Thailand has proposed tough entry requirements for local punters in casinos as it plans to build a major gaming industry to boost tourism, new draft regulation released on Monday showed, which could potentially dent investor interest.

Thai nationals must have at least 50 million baht ($1.5 million) in fixed deposits for at least six months to be able to enter casinos, according to the draft issued by the Office of the Council of State, which governments consult on legal issues, policy and appointments.

The requirements, which also include an entry fee capped at 5,000 baht, will effectively block large swathes of the population, where per capita gross domestic product is about $7,300, according to government data.

Most forms of gambling are illegal in Thailand but illicit betting is rife. Domestic casino players were seen as an important draw for foreign investors, who are closely watching details of the draft law, analyst say.

A Citi report late last year estimated that about half of people age 20 and more in Thailand could be casino players, providing a base for the country to potentially become the world’s third largest gambling destination.

An entry fee as high as 5,000 baht would restrict casino access to upper middle class and wealthier Thai individuals, said Daniel Cheng, a gaming consultant based in Singapore.

“A further 50 million baht bank deposit requirement would render Thai casinos no better than foreigner-only regimes like South Korea’s,” he said.

Fresh public hearings for the new draft law will be held between Feb. 15 and March 1. After they conclude, the draft law must be approved by Cabinet before being sent to Parliament for deliberation.

Thailand allows gambling in state-controlled horse racing, the lottery and betting on some sports, such as boxing.

Several countries in Southeast Asia have legalized casinos, but only a few like wealthy Singapore has been successful in drawing global giants such as Las Vegas Sands Corp. on the back of robust regulations.

The Thai government, led by the populist Pheu Thai party, hopes to attract at least 100 billion baht ($3 billion) in new investment, for an annual boost to foreign arrivals by 5% to 10% and generate revenue of more than 12 billion baht a year.

Another restriction was that the casino area may only occupy up to 10% of the entire complex space, the draft showed.

Tourism is a key driver of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy. This year, the government expects 38 million foreign arrivals, closing in on its pre-pandemic record of nearly 40 million tourists.

But an opinion poll last month found that most Thais oppose the casino plan, and some political parties argue that building a gambling industry would worsen social problems. — Reuters

JAKARTA — Indonesia’s parliament on Tuesday passed a bill to revise the country’s mining law, aimed at boosting development of domestic mineral processing industries and regulating mining access for small businesses and religious groups.

The amendment seeks to encourage participations of smaller-scale firms in mining sectors and to ensure ore supply security for mineral processing industries, as resource-rich Indonesia seeks to further develop its domestic metals sector.

Indonesia is a major coal exporter and has rich deposits of tin, copper and bauxite, among other metals. It is the world’s largest source of nickel.

The amended mining law enables priority access for mining concessions for companies that aim to build processing facilities, taking into account the size of their investment, the value addition and job creation.

Religious groups, through a business unit under their control, and small- to medium-sized businesses will also be allowed priority access to certain mining areas.

In the past, such priority access has only been given to state-owned companies.

Universities were previously included in the parties allowed for priority access, but were later removed.

Instead, priority will be given to certain government-controlled or private businesses to manage a mining area for the benefit of the universities, such as for research and scholarship funds.

“This amendment is in line with the government’s aspiration to reform governance of mineral and coal mining,” Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia told parliament after a plenary vote that passed the bill. 

The law revision was also to satisfy a 2021 constitutional court order to revise a number of articles related to mining that the court said were unconstitutional. — Reuters