‘Upside down, soaked in jet fuel’: Detroit flight attendant lawsuit gives look inside Delta plane crash

TORONTO – A Detroit flight attendant offered a glimpse inside the Delta Air Lines flight that crashed and landed upside down, saying she regained consciousness while hanging upside down and soaked in jet fuel.

Vanessa Miles, of Detroit, hired the Mike Morse Law Firm to represent her in a lawsuit against Delta Air Lines, Inc., and Endeavor Air, Inc., a Delta subsidiary.

Endeavor Air Flight 4819 took off on Feb. 17, 2025, from Minneapolis and was scheduled to land at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

At around 2:45 p.m. Feb. 17, the flight crashed while landing on a runway at the Toronto airport. There were 80 people on board -- 76 passengers and four crew members -- and 21 of them were injured.

Although Miles works as a flight attendant, she was traveling as a passenger to reposition herself for future assignments, according to the complaint.

While the plane was landing, it experienced a “violent and catastrophic drop during the landing procedure, struck the ground with excessive force, rolled multiple times, and ultimately came to rest upside down on its roof due to defendants’ grossly negligent operation of the aircraft,” the complaint says.

Miles said the cabin began to fill with smoke and jet fuel. She said she lost consciousness while hanging upside down from her seatbelt.

“Upon regaining consciousness, she found herself soaked in jet fuel and surrounded by smoke, putting her at grave risk for chemical burns, asphyxiation, and death,” the complaint reads.

Miles said she unbuckled her seatbelt and fell to the ceiling of the upside-down plane. She claims there were no announcements from the flight crew and that she was not allowed to perform any of their duties since she was riding as a passenger.

The complaint says that when Miles was trying to get off the plane, she fell about 6-7 feet to the ground because the emergency slides had not deployed. She said that fall “further aggravated her injuries.”

Delta CEO praises crew

After the crash, Delta CEO Ed Bastian spoke with CBS Mornings and praised the crew.

“Our Endeavor crew performed heroically, but also as expected,” Bastian said. “The reality is that safety is embedded into our system.

“We’re a very competitive industry across the U.S. airlines, but there’s one thing we do not compete on, and that’s safety. We all work together, and we all learn from each other.”

Injuries

Miles said she was forced to stand outside in 15-degree weather for about an hour after getting off the plane.

“The aircraft exploded approximately two minutes after (Miles) exited,” the complaint says.

Emergency responders took her to Humber River Health in Toronto, where she was treated for her injuries, according to the complaint.

The complaint says Miles suffered “severe and permanent injuries,” as well as other damages:

• Fractured left shoulder/scapula.
• Traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness.
• Post-concussion syndrome with headaches, dizziness, and other cognitive difficulties.
• Bilateral knee injuries.
• Back injuries.
• Exposure to jet fuel and toxic fumes.
• Psychological trauma, including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
• Mental anguish and emotional distress.
• Fright, shock, embarrassment, humiliation, and mortification.
• Loss of earnings and earning capacity.
• Medical expenses, past and future.
• Loss of enjoyment of life.

At the end of the complaint, the requested relief is $75 million, in addition to court fees.

Delta Air Lines, Endeavor Air accusations

The complaint accuses the airlines of “knowingly assigning an inexperienced and inadequately trained pilot to operate the flight, demonstrating a reckless disregard for passenger safety in pursuit of operational efficiency.”

It also claims the airline “cut corners on safety by rushing pilots through training programs and knowingly putting passengers at risk with inexperienced flight crew.”

Here are some of the specific accusations in the complaint:

• Failure to make sure critical emergency evacuation equipment was functioning properly.
• Failure to properly train flight crew members on emergency evacuation procedures.
• A lack of emergency announcements or guidance during the evacuation.
• Failure to properly maintain landing gear.
• Failure to provide prompt medical assistance after the crash.
• Inadequate emergency response procedures.

The complaint also lists a number of preliminary findings from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada:

• Failing to maintain a safe rate of descent.
• Improperly flying the plane with excessive right bank angles.
• Improperly reducing engine thrust, contributing to the excessive descent rate.
• Failing to respond properly to a sink rate alert.
• Failing to take the right corrective actions to address the descent rate and banking angle during final approach.
• Failing to adjust landing procedures for challenging weather conditions.

“Defendants knowingly, willfully, and repeatedly place profits over safety, resulting in this catastrophic incident and (Miles’) severe injuries,” the complaint reads.

Specifically, the complaint accuses Delta and Endeavor of the following counts:

1. Montreal convention -- strict liability.
2. Montreal convention -- negligence.
3. Gross negligence.

In the argument for the second count, the complaint accuses Delta and Endeavor of the following:

• Failing to properly train the flight crew, including pilots.
• Failing to make sure the pilot was experienced enough to safely land the plane.
• Failing to maintain proper operational control of the plane.
• Failing to make sure emergency evacuation equipment, including emergency slides, worked properly.
• Failing to properly train the flight crew on emergency evacuation procedures.
• Failing to properly execute emergency procedures after the crash.
• Failing to properly maintain the plane.
• Failing to provide prompt medical help.
• Failing to keep a safe rate of descent during the landing approach.
• Failing to maintain proper pitch attitude at touchdown.
• Failing to respond appropriately to the enhanced ground proximity warning system “sink rate” alert that activated 2.6 seconds before touchdown.
• Failing to properly manage engine thrust during the final approach.
• Failing to execute proper energy management during the approach in gusty wind conditions.
• Failing to follow standard operating procedures for landing approach.

In the argument for the third count, the complaint accuses Delta of “recklessly allowing the aircraft to touch down with a catastrophically excessive rate of descent which significantly exceeded both the aircraft’s structural design limit (and the) defendants’ own ‘hard landing’ threshold.”

The complaint claims that the plane’s right bank angle at touchdown created an “imminent danger of structural failure.”

The complaint also says critical flight controls were mismanaged when the engine thrust was drastically reduced at a low altitude, “with deliberate disregard for the resulting excessive descent rate.”

Delta statement

Local 4 reached out to Delta for a statement on Tuesday, Aug. 5, 2025.

Here is the full statement:

Delta will reiterate our statement from Feb. 20, 2025 where details about the qualifications of the pilots of 4819 were shared. We will decline further comment given this is pending litigation and also because of the ongoing TSB of Canada investigation, to which Endeavor Air and Delta remain engaged participants.

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 2024. Her flight experience exceeded the 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. 

Spokesperson for Delta Air Lines