On Monday, we saw a Delta Connection CRJ-900 have a horrific accident in Toronto, whereby the plane lost a wing on landing, and ended up coming to a stop upside down. Amazingly, everyone onboard survived, and the last people have even been released from the hospital. What a miraculous outcome, given the state of the aircraft.
There has been endless speculation online about the pilots involved in the accident, and it hasn’t been without motive. Well, Delta has now set the record straight on some important points.
Delta provides details about pilots involved in crash
Delta has issued the following statement regarding the pilots involved in Monday’s crash:
Endeavor Air and Delta are correcting disinformation in social media containing false and misleading assertions about the flight crew of Endeavor Air 4819.
- Captain: Mesaba Airlines, a progenitor company of Endeavor Air, hired the captain in October 2007. He has served both as an active duty Captain and in pilot training and flight safety capacities. Assertions that he failed training events are false. Assertions that he failed to flow into a pilot position at Delta Air Lines due to training failures are also false.
- First Officer: Hired in January 2024 by Endeavor Air and completed training in April. She has been flying for Endeavor Air since that time. As with any airline pilot, her flight experience mandated minimum requirements set by U.S. Federal regulations. Assertions that she failed training events are false.
Both crew members are qualified and FAA certified for their positions.
As you can see, the captain was pretty experienced, while the first officer was still fairly new. Keep in mind that we have the 1,500-hour rule in the United States for pilots, so even if someone is new to an airline, it doesn’t mean they’re new to flying.
For those who haven’t seen the misinformation, there have been all kinds of claims about the two pilots on social media. I won’t even repeat them or get into them, though I think the claims are somewhat obvious, based on what Delta is explaining is false.
Let investigators do their jobs, then draw conclusions
Honestly, it’s incredibly disheartening to see the way some people are acting toward the pilots following the crash. This really shouldn’t be that complicated — as of now, we know very little about the factors that contributed to the crash.
One of the reasons that aviation is so safe is because we have dedicated accident investigators who take their time learning as much about accidents as possible, and not rushing to conclusions. They then publish their reports, with the hope of improving aviation safety in the future. Their hard work has contributed to aviation being as safe as it is.
Unfortunately in this case, it seems that some people don’t want to let the process play out. Why? Well, I have to imagine it was because the first officer was a female, and there are a lot of people desperate to blame this accident on DEI.
This isn’t that complicated — let’s not speculate, let’s let investigators do their jobs, and then we can come to conclusions once all the facts are known.
What’s so disturbing is how information spreads on social media nowadays. People will make claims online, pass them off as fact (even when they’re false), and then they spread like wildfire, because they fit the narrative that some people want.
Then you have some media outlets that probably don’t have bad intentions, but also can’t say no to the clicks and traffic, so they jump on the bandwagon as well, with little skepticism into what’s being reported. Like, one of the people who has been most vocal about spreading details here is a former Delta pilot who was fired a while back, and has had an axe to grind with the airline ever since. You’d think you’d be a little critical about information that person is sharing, no?
Let me say this to all the folks with DEI pitchforks. If the investigation reveals that the crash was due to pilot error, and that the pilot only got her job or passed tests due to some “DEI metric,” I’ll be there right with you in saying that’s a problem. But as of now, we have no reason to believe that.
For that matter, if this does turn out to be pilot error, and if it turns out the female was flying, it’s also possible that it was simply a function of lack of experience, rather than DEI. Let me remind everyone that we’ve seen a lot of aviation disasters in the United States over the course of history, and a vast majority of accidents attributed to pilot error have involved white men.
Bottom line
Delta has corrected some misinformation that we’ve seen on social media, regarding the pilots involved in the recent Delta Connection CRJ-900 crash, operated by wholly owned subsidiary Endeavor Air. Some people were claiming that the pilots had failed all kinds of tests, and that the captain was even rejected in being promoted to Delta mainline, but the airline has clarified that this isn’t the case.
Folks, can we please just let investigators do their jobs, and then draw conclusions? Is waiting for all the details just that hard?
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