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TORONTO (NEXSTAR/WWLP) – Delta Air Lines is offering a monetary “gesture” of $30,000 to each passenger on Delta Flight 4819, which crashed and flipped over upon landing at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Monday.
When asked specifically whether passengers who accept the offer would be required to sign away their rights to seek further compensation or sue the airline, a spokesperson for Delta indicated that was not the case.
“Delta Care Team representatives are telling customers this gesture has no strings attached and does not affect rights,” the spokesperson told Nexstar.
Some passengers, meanwhile, have already 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 obtained by the Associated Press. “With our involvement, we expect to reach a timely and fair resolution for these clients and others who reach out to us.”

Delta Flight 4819, operated by Endeavor Air, had taken off from Minneapolis before crash-landing in Toronto at around 2:30 p.m. on Monday. Video of the incident showed flames and smoke emanating from the plane upon impact. Passengers were also filmed evacuating the upside-down plane.
All 80 people on the plane (76 passengers, four crew) survived the crash, though more than 20 suffered injuries.
Delta CEO Ed Bastian, speaking with CBS on Monday, said he could not discuss the investigation into the cause of the crash. When asked if the crew’s experience may have played a role, Bastian claimed the flight was operated by “an experienced crew.”
“All these pilots train for these conditions. They fly under all kinds of conditions at all the airports at which we operate,” Bastian said. “So no, there’s nothing specific with respect to experience that I’d look to.”
Bastian, and other aviation experts, have also credited the plane’s construction with preventing a worse outcome.
“Aviation is and remains the safest form of transportation,” Michael McCormick, an assistant professor and program coordinator for air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, told the Associated Press. He added that it was no fluke that all 80 people were able to walk away from crash. “That is because the safety of aviation is constantly improving.”
Monday’s crash-landing in Toronto is among several major aviation disasters to occur in the last month. In late January, 67 people were killed when an Army helicopter and an American Airlines jet collided in Washington, D.C., marking the country’s deadliest aviation disaster since 2001.
Just a day later, a medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed into a Philadelphia neighborhood on Jan. 31, exploding in a fireball that engulfed several homes and resulted in the death of seven people, while 19 others were injured.
A commuter plane in Alaska also crashed into the Bering Sea a week later, killing 10, and an aircraft collision over an Arizona airport on Feb. 19 resulted in the death of two people.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.