STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Was Delta Flight 4819, which crashed upon landing in Toronto, piloted by a female-only crew? No, that's not true: Delta referred to the flight captain as "he" in a statement on the company website, and the first officer as "she." In an audio recording of Air Traffic Control correspondence during the flight's landing and subsequent crash, the voices of what sound like multiple men can be heard. (However, authorities have not publicly released the audio recording of the crash.) Finally, a video used in a post claiming the flight was piloted by an all-female crew was originally posted to TikTok in 2022 -- nearly three years before the accident.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on X on February 19, 2025, with a caption that read:
The plane that crashed in Toronto was a Delta flight operated by Endeavor Air, a small airline obsessed with all-female 'unmanned' flights
This is how that post appeared at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken Thu Feb 19 10:26:00 UTC 2025)
Endeavor Air and Delta are correcting disinformation in social media containing false and misleading assertions about the flight crew of Endeavor Air 4819.The rumor suggesting that both pilots were women appeared on social media before Delta shared the above statement. At that time, officials had not publicly shared the gender or identity of either captain or first officer.
- 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.
Both crew members are qualified and FAA certified for their positions.
- First Officer: Hired in January 2024 by Endeavor Air and completed training in April. She has been flying for Endeavor since that time. As with any airline pilot, her flight experience exceeded the mandated minimum requirements set by U.S. Federal regulations. Assertions that she failed training events are false.
For example, in an interview (archived here) with "CBS Mornings" posted to the Delta website on February 19, 2025, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said he could not comment on the details as this is an ongoing investigation. When asked how experienced the pilots were and their familiarity with the airport, Bastian responded:
It was an experienced crew, there's one level of safety at Delta, Chris, between our main line and our regional jets. All these pilots have trained for these conditions. They fly under all kinds of conditions at all the airports in which we operate, so there's nothing specific to expect to experience I'd look to.
At no point in the interview did Bastian acknowledge the gender of either of the pilots.
TSB is overseeing an investigation into the crash (archived here). The agency stated that it would continue to conduct interviews and had recovered the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder for analysis.
At no point in TSB's four statements posted online as of this publication did the agency mention the gender of the two pilots. Those statements are viewable here (archived here), here (archived here), here (archived here) and here (archived here).
The video used in the post was originally published by Endeavor Air (archived here) on TikTok on March 26, 2022, in honor of Women's History Month -- nearly three years before the Flight 4819 accident. Below is a live embed of that video:
@endeavorair In honor of women's history month💁♀️ #womenshistorymonth #endeavorair #deltaairlines #pilottiktok #airlinepilot ♬ original sound - edits
There is no evidence to suggest that the women in the video on X were piloting Flight 4819.
Live ATC is a website that livestreams and archives Air Traffic Control (ATC) audio. On February 18, 2025, the site uploaded an audio file titled "EDV4819 Flips Over After Landing Toronto," presumably the radio communication between Flight 4819 and air traffic controllers in Toronto. During the five-minute-long recording, several voices that appear to be male make requests to land. Below is an embed of the Live ATC audio recording:
Investigators have not yet released the official recordings taken from the flight cockpit voice recorder. As such, this audio recording has not been publicly verified by authorities.
Flight 4819 crash-landed in Toronto
On February 17, 2025, a CRJ-900 aircraft manufactured by Bombardier operated by Delta Endeavor Air was flying from Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport, Minnesota, to Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International Airport, Ontario.
According to the investigation report, the aircraft impacted the runway upon landing, at which point parts of the plane separated -- notably a wing and tail section -- and a fire began. The central part of the aircraft, which carries passengers, known as the fuselage, flipped over, resting upside-down, and facing the other direction.
Authorities reported that the 76 passengers and four crew members were evacuated. No fatalities were reported, and people with injuries were taken to the hospital for treatment.
Lead Stories contacted TSB to comment on the pilots' genders, and we will update this article accordingly when a response is received. Lead Stories also contacted Endeavor Air, which operates Flight 4819 under the Delta banner.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks involving Delta can be read here.
If you have tips involving the flight crew of Flight 4189, please email [email protected].
Updates:
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2025-02-21T00:27:42Z 2025-02-21T00:27:42Z Added February 20, 2025, Delta statement.
