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CNN International: Delta Airlines Plane Crashes In Toronto; Delta Airlines Plane Flipped Upside Down; Ukraine Peace Talks; European Leaders Hold Emergency Meeting; U.S. And Russia Talks On Ukraine Tuesday; Israel Prepares To Receive Remains Of Hostages. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 17, 2025 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And back in the breaking news in Canada. We just got some brand-new video. It's our first look from inside the cabin. It shows passengers getting out of the airliner after it flipped. You're going to want to watch this coming up next with Wolf Blitzer in The Situation Room. He'll have all of it and much more in the investigation, the crash in Toronto starting right now.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Zain Asher. We begin with breaking news out of Canada? Where a Delta Airlines plane has flipped upside down after crashing at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Emergency crews are on the scene. Officials say that all 80 people on board have been evacuated. There are reports of at least 15 people injured, two of them critically. The flight took off Monday from the U.S. City of Minneapolis in Minnesota.

I want you to listen to what one passenger said right after the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're in Toronto. We just landed. Our plane crashed. It's upside down. Fire department is on site. Upside down. Everybody -- most people appear to be OK. We're all getting off. Some stuff going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: You can literally hear that passenger was out of breath, obviously, overwhelmed with emotion as he described the fact that the plane was upside down. We've also just learned that we are expecting officials to brief the press later on this hour. We'll bring that to you of course when we get it.

Let's go to Richard Quest. Richard, obviously I spoke to you a couple of hours ago when the news was just breaking. These are unbelievable images. I mean, it's been a few hours and I've had time to digest them, but I still cannot get over what we are seeing there. Just explain to us what more we know, especially as it pertains to how this actually happened.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR-AT-LARGE AND CNN ANCHOR, QUEST MEANS BUSINESS: We don't know too many details of what actually happened in terms of how or why the aircraft flipped over. But I think certain obvious facts become clear, and the weather will be playing a dramatic part in what took place.

We know from meteorological records from what air traffic control was saying, and from what other aircraft who were landing around the same time had reported that there were very strong gusts up to 33, 35 an hour -- miles per hour, kilometers -- up to 50 kilometers an hour that were around at that time. So, it's also the direction of the wind. It was a cross wind as opposed to a headwind. And all of these things will play into how at some point during the approach and landing the pilots lose control.

The wind moves the aircraft either just before. We don't have the granular details yet of at what point this took place. But looking at the pictures -- and again, Zain, if we break these down into two. First of all, you'll have the pictures of the plane upside down. And in the middle of the aircraft, you can see the scorching where the main fuel -- you can see that the main fuel tanks would have been where the landing gear, the main gear would have been.

And then, we also have the pictures of a fire that took place, black smoke that came from the aircraft. Now, we know from witnesses and from those who were on board, they say there was a fireball. There you are. You can see that bit that I'm talking about at the moment. That black area in the moment where now fire-retardant materials are being put upon it. There you see the smoke fueled fire. That will have happened as the plane took tipped over, Zain. The wings will have ruptured and departed the aircraft and the fuel will have set on fire. And according to one eyewitness, that was the moment where there was the fireball, where they could feel that the plane was on fire.

Now, how that explosion didn't engulf the aircraft, we don't know yet. Was it because of the wet conditions? Was it because, for instance, the fire department had got their in time and therefore, were able to deal with it? We're not quite clear. But we do know the totality of the situation tells us that this was, as you said I think earlier, a miracle.

ASHER: I mean, they weren't just it wasn't just one miracle, it appears that there were plenty of miracles that took place in order for the passengers, the 80 souls on board to emerge from that aircraft safely. As you point out, there was a fire. The plane obviously was upside down. The wings came off. You know, the list goes on.

[18:05:00]

Just in terms of how this aircraft was evacuated so quickly, we actually just played new video, it was cell phone video of somebody who was actually on board the plane and took the video as they were jumping out, being assisted jumping out of the exit. Here it is. You see somebody sort of approaching the exit and being lifted out.

Just explain to us, you know, how the flight crew and the pilots would have worked very, very quickly. I believe they have about 90 seconds or so to evacuate the entire -- sort of all the passengers from the aircraft.

QUEST: You know, before I say that, before I do that, let's just pause for a moment. I mean, I'm not entirely sure that when you're climbing out of an aircraft that's on fire and you basically have got time to think about taking video of what you're filming. Now, on the one hand I'm delighted that we have taken the video. We've got the video of it. But you've got to think about the nature of you're leaving a burning aircraft, here we go, and you have time to get your phone out and start videoing the whole procedure. Anyway, there we are. That's a story for -- or a discussion for another day.

On the actual question of what we are seeing, so think about it, the plane lands and you are literally upside down. I mean, that's the reality. You're strapped into your seat. You're upside down. You have to disconnect yourself. And as you do so, ensure that you don't fall, accordingly. And then, you have to walk along the ceiling and get off the aircraft that way. And the door of the course of the plane is here, it's not there. And you put it all together and you have an extremely difficult scenario to actually get out of the aircraft.

But, and this is the point, the testing of the aircraft, when they do the certification, you have to be able to get everybody off the aircraft within 90 seconds with 50 percent of the doors inoperable. That's the way the rules are. So, it is doable, and today is a good example of them actually doing it.

We don't know just how much the fire had been extinguished at the time. Looking at that video, again, you can still see the smoke that was prevalent at the time, the fire following a survivable landing that -- apparently. We learned this from the BA Air Tours crash back in the '80s, I think it was. The fire following a survivable landing is the biggest risk to passengers.

The plane having crashed, you being alive, being able to get off, your number one risk is fire. And that, of course, both the last time we saw the Air France A340 at Pearson and of course, this one shows just how it can be done, it can be done properly and everybody survives.

ASHER: It is absolutely incredible. You know, at the start of every single flight you watch a video that tells you what to do in case of an emergency landing and you never imagine, you never imagined that you were actually going to be in that position, of course, until you are. Richard Quest, always good to see you. Thank you so much for that.

QUEST: Thank you.

ASHER: Let me bring in Paula Newton now, who's joining us live now from New York. So, Paula, just in terms of what we know about the injuries, we know that 15 people were injured, as I understand it, one child was injured critically. What more do we know about the types of injuries that they sustained, Paula?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Zain, we are getting some new information. Delta Airlines has put out a statement now saying that, in fact, as far as they know, that 18 customers, in their words, had injuries and have been transported to area hospitals. So, that is 18.

We had learned earlier that three were critically injured, and as you mentioned, at least one child taken to the Children's Hospital in Downtown Toronto there. So, three people injured critically. And according to Delta now, 18 suffering some type of injuries. And again, as you've been explaining, Zain, so thankful, they also confirmed that there are no fatalities. Again, 80 people on that aircraft, four crews, 76 passengers. This was, according to Delta, very full flight.

Now, Zain, you and I were discussing this earlier. I was at the airport about an hour before this incident happened. I was at Toronto Airport taking off. We were waiting at the runway for a little bit. I think they were trying to juggle runways because of the wind. I mean, that would be something that comes out in the investigation, but there was a lot of snow, a lot of wind and a lot of snow.

[18:10:00]

Toronto had upwards -- in the last week upwards of more than a foot of snow, about 40 to 45 centimeters. And crews were busy diligently trying to get a lot of that snow, certainly off the taxi areas, but also off the runway. And you can see just by some of that video that you've shown how much snow was there.

It's also bitterly cold, which meant that on those runway surfaces, the minute that any of that precipitation would have hit the ground, it would have been basically like an ice rink.

Now, having said that, they assumed that everything was safe or they wouldn't have planes flying in and out of Pearson. And in fact, we know now that the airport is telling us that they have reopened to most scheduled flights, and that was as of about an hour ago. Again, they will have an update within this hour for us again at Pearson.

Canada's transport minister, Anita Anand, confirming that the Transportation Safety Board in Canada will be leading this investigation, but already the NTSB, the United States, the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States, they're investigators on route as well, and they will work in conjunction to really determine what happened here.

Zain, I've also seen the operations behind the scenes at this airport, both snow conditions in terms of things like de-icing. I've seen emergency services. And I've actually also been in the control tower. These are well trained professionals. They've had some incidents over the years in Toronto. They have done best practices and taken on all the recommendations as issued by the Transportation Safety Board. And we can see from the video how quickly emergency crews were actually there because that is what they trained for.

You heard Richard say you've got 90 seconds, and believe me, they trained to wherever the incident is on that airport territory to be able to get there as quickly as possible. And as you point out, Zain, miraculous that it is 18 injured and no fatalities, three people right now, as we know, critically injured, including one child.

ASHER: I mean, it beggars' belief, you know.

NEWTON: It's upside down. ASHER: Yes.

NEWTON: A plane is upside down.

ASHER: So much to be thankful for.

NEWTON: It is upside down. And as I said, Zain, I've gone through that airport, you know, hundreds of times, I have never seen that much snow there and that much blowing snow. So, even if it didn't contribute to the accident at all, just getting those passengers off in those conditions that quickly, again, made ever more difficult.

ASHER: OK. Paula Newton live for us there, thank you so much. Let's get more with our aviation safety analyst, David Soucie. David, thank you so much for being with us. Obviously, we've had you on CNN for many, many years. I remember MH370, that was the first time I spoke to you. That was literally 10 years ago.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST AND FORMER FAA SAFETY INSPECTOR: Yes, Zain.

ASHER: You've covered plane crashes for us quite a bit, unfortunately. But did you ever imagine that we would be talking about a situation like this, a plane upside down and with no wings? Give us your take on what we're seeing in Toronto tonight.

SOUCIE: Well, it just had to be a horrific experience for everybody on board. As Richard was mentioning before, picture yourself in that situation. You're six feet above the ground. You have to take off your seatbelt and drop head first down to the ground to try to get out. And then, you have your baggage compartment areas. So, you're walking up the middle. So, you have to climb back up over that baggage compartment area to get out that door and move.

And I am so impressed with the fact that very few people -- I don't see anybody who took their laptop or took their personal belongings or anything, not even coats or anything and just got off that aircraft. That's just really testament to really good coordination and planning by the flight crew to get those folks safely out of that airplane. I'm so impressed with how this is turning out.

ASHER: Oh, I am too. And actually, one of the things I was saying to Richard Quest is that, you know, one thing that I think a lot of passengers, myself included, I'm guilty of, is taking for granted is that those videos that you watch before a flight that tells you what to do in case there's an emergency landing. You know, you sort of only half pay attention because you think to yourself, the chances of it actually happening is pretty much, you know, zero.

And then, of course, you see something like this when it does happen. Just explain to us -- you know, I was speaking to one analyst earlier who was saying to us that the 16G seats were instrumental in saving lives here. Give us your thoughts on that.

SOUCIE: Well, absolutely right. In 1987, there was a similar accident, although that one did have fire, it was in Denver and I was in Denver when that happened. And it was upside down. It was a DC-9. Back then they didn't have 14G seats. The seats weren't attached and they were attached well. But when this aircraft, back in 1987, flipped over, seats had fallen out, people had just literally fallen with momentum directly onto the ground. And there were 25 fatalities in that airplane.

Four or five of those fatalities were as they were trying to extract people from the airplane. And the fact is, on that airplane, the wings were not designed to break away. They were designed to hang on to the last minute, and it literally ripped the fuselage into pieces. And so, the weight of that wing prevented us from getting survivors out of that airplane. And you could hear him and it was just continually crushing down on him.

[18:15:00]

Contrast that to today and talk about the new advancements in the 16Gs. That means that 16 times the pressure of being able to stop that momentum, that pressure is on the mounts and everything on these seats. And so, instead of pulling off, they stayed in place, they flipped over the aircraft, flipped over, the inertia was -- came to a halt. And when that happened, those seats stayed in place and that saved lives. So, that's one thing.

But the other thing is those wings that are designed now, when it does roll, to not tear the fuselage in half. It just -- the wings are designed to come off. And so, they did. They did come off here. And you can see, it's so rewarding for me, I know it was tragic, but the fact that there are no fatalities is so rewarding for me as a safety professional with the FAA for eight to 17 years.

And now, having been working with CNN on these accidents to see this kind of advancements that show and demonstrate to people just how much it works, how well the system works when there's an accident investigation that many years ago and then to see this nearly the same accident happen again, but this time there were no fatalities.

I can -- I have a hard time expressing just how important this is to me and how much it means to me that that actually worked the way that it did.

ASHER: No, David. I mean, thank you for underscoring that. I think you've, you know, made some really important points. It just proves that some of the advancements we've seen in aviation safety is actually having a positive impact here.

I do want to ask you about what the investigation looks like. We know the Canadian Transportation Safety Board and the NTSB are going to be working together. What does that cooperation look like? What's going to be the first step in the investigation? Is it the black boxes? Is it interviewing the pilots?

SOUCIE: In this case, yes. What I would do first or what an investigator in charge does at the scene, and it will be led by the Canadian Transportation Safety Board, and they will be the investigators in charge. Now, the NTSB will be there. Other folks will be there. There'll be manufacturer representatives, engine representatives, all of those folks get together.

So, the first thing in a good investigation is to plan and what you put together as a plan. In this case, it's not complicated by fatalities, it's not complicated by extractions of the individuals. So, this investigation is going to go quite smoothly and it will be controlled in a controlled environment. And once everything's cleared and moved, then they can look at the black boxes first and see what that does.

But even the videos that we're looking at now are going to be very useful for the investigators. You can look at the smoke, for example. I had a completely different picture of what happened until I saw that one video from someone else that was riding in another aircraft, looking out the window. Once I saw that video of the smoke that we're seeing now, it changed my opinion on this. It looks to me like the smoke started after the aircraft had hit the ground. It started right at the impact point from what I can tell. And again, I'm not there, but that's what I would look at first, is actually go out to the runway, see where it hit the ground first and see if there was a hard impact. Perhaps it was a hard impact.

I'd be looking at the landing gear to see -- the physical inspection to see is the landing gear there or was it torn off by the aircraft rotating left or right, or did it just get driven back up into the wing, which it appears to have been from what I can see here. But there's a lot that goes into it, but it really starts with the first meeting, the coordination of all the people involved, and everyone gets an equal voice, and it all has to be coordinated together in one place.

ASHER: Well, we are going to get some answers, I believe, in the next hour or so, because I think we are getting a press conference.

SOUCIE: Yes.

ASHER: And there's just -- I mean, a lot of people are desperate to know how on earth this could have happened. You know, obviously, you talked about the fact that the wings are designed to break off, which is a good thing, but just the fact that you have this aircraft that landed upside down, or rather landed and then rotated, we don't really know what happened, I think a lot of people have some very important questions. David Soucie, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much for being with us on this.

SOUCIE: Of course.

ASHER: And as our Paula Newton was just mentioning a couple of minutes ago, Delta has put out a statement saying 18 customers with injuries have been transported to area hospitals. That's up from the 15 we reported earlier, and the statement also reiterates that there have been no fatalities in this crash.

All right. Still to come, a crucial meeting set to be held in Saudi Arabia to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine. We'll have the latest next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

ASHER: The U.S. and Russia are set to hold talks on ending the conflict in Ukraine in just hours from now. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team are expected to meet with the Russian delegation, which should include Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Saudi's capital on Tuesday. Ukraine's president says he's not participating in these talks but will travel to Riyadh for his own meeting with Saudi officials.

European leaders held an emergency summit in Paris as they fear that they are being sidelines. Sources telling CNN that British prime minister, Keir Starmer, plans to meet with President Trump next wee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: I think there's a bigger piece here as well, which is that this isn't just about the frontline in Ukraine, it's the frontline of Europe and of the United Kingdom. It's about our national security. And I think that we need to do more. We need to step up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: He also said he's willing to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine if necessary. Meantime, Russia appears to expect a much broader reset of relations between Moscow and Washington. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claims U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin want to leave behind what he calls an abnormal period in relations. Fred Pleitgen is in Moscow with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Russian state TV already hyping up the new close relations between President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

This is a powerful sign that we will now try to solve problems through dialogue and that we will now talk about peace and not war, the Kremlin spokesman telling a well-known Russian reporter.

As the U.S. and Russian delegations gather in Saudi Arabia for the first direct talks in about three years, President Trump bullish saying he wants to end the Ukraine war fast.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're moving along, we're trying to get a peace with Russia, Ukraine, and we're working very hard on it. It's a war that should have never started.

PLEITGEN (voice-over): But the Russians indicating they want more, a near total reset of U.S.-Russian relations, starting with a direct face-to-face meeting between Trump and Putin, but also aiming for major sanctions relief and the restoration of full economic and diplomatic ties, one of the heads of Russia's delegation says. The aim is to talk about restoring normal ties, he says, to discuss the start of possible negotiations on Ukraine and also to discuss the prospects for contacts at the highest level.

All this as Ukraine's army struggles to stop Russian advances, especially in Eastern Ukraine with a drastic uptick in combat engagements this past weekend.

[18:25:00]

And the U.S.'s European allies left out of the talks, holding their own emergency summit, discussing sending troops from their countries for possible peacekeeping efforts in case of a ceasefire, after the Trump administration refused to send U.S. troops.

Ukraine's president also confirming Kyiv will not be part of this round of talks in Saudi Arabia and won't accept their outcome.

Ukraine regards any negotiations on Ukraine, without Ukraine, as ones that have no results. And we cannot recognize any things, any agreements about us without us and we'll not recognize such agreements.

And despite President Trump's optimism, the Russians themselves indicating they're in no mood to make concessions to Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov telling me.

PLEITGEN: Which territorial concessions, and in general, which compromises is Russia willing to make to achieve such a peace agreement?

PLEITGEN (voice-over): To see how with people, with Russians or without people with only rare earth metals? For what? So, that Russians can be destroyed like they are now being destroyed in the Kursk region and in other regions of the Russian Federation.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ASHER: All right. For more on this global affairs analyst Kim Dozier joins us live now. So, Kim, there's a lot of concern among European leaders in terms of being left out of these talks and sidelined. First of all, the security guarantees, what happens if this war -- if and when this war ends?

What does it mean in terms of who's going to supply the peacekeeping troops in Ukraine to ensure that Vladimir Putin doesn't just sort of circle back and do the same thing again? And also, the fear that the Americans are going to simply offer far too many concessions to the Russians without the Europeans present to sort of police that.

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes. So, one of the things that the first gut punch for Kyiv and for Europeans, writ large, came when word emerged that President Trump had a very long and, as he described it, warm phone call with Vladimir Putin, and Trump came out telling the public about the best possible aspects of the deal. It sounded like he had bought into much of what Putin had told him things like Putin wouldn't accept NATO troops on Ukrainian soil at all, ever, and therefore, then Trump parroted from the Oval Office that, therefore, it's a nonstarter, as if what Putin says goes. That started the panic.

Then you had Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense's comments, that said Europe -- you know, he said Europe has to stand on its own. Some of it he walked back, but not the Europe standing on its own part. And then, you had Vice President J. D. Vance clucking at the Munich Security Forum, telling the assembled European leaders that they were anti-democracy and defending a Russian disinformation campaign in Romania that he said should have been allowed to stand, that sort of thing really shocked people.

So, that was the wind up to this lightning-fast meeting that's taking place in a few hours in Saudi Arabia that left everyone feeling left out, left behind, and it looks like Putin had successfully manipulated Trump into right where he wanted them and is worming his way back into the G7 via Trump's good graces.

ASHER: Yes. I mean, it's obvious that Russia, at least for now, does have the upper hand. But does Ukraine have any leverage in all of this?

DOZIER: So, I mean, that's just first half of it. That's Ukraine's point of view, Europe's point of view at this point. Ukraine has the leverage of those rare earth minerals. Now, some of those rare earth mineral supplies are in areas currently held by Russia, but of course, Ukraine is holding a couple 100 square miles of Kursk, Russian territory, that it is willing to trade to get its own territory back. Though it's not clear how much.

But I think really what we're seeing here is Trump's national security team is doing what any good White House team does. The boss wants to meet with the head of Russia. Well, we've got to meet their side beforehand to see what are we going to get out of this? What are the possible pitfalls that President Trump might be falling into? How many of the promises Trump thought he heard from Putin on things like the U.S. and Russia jointly reducing the number of their nuclear weapons? How many of those pie in the sky type notions that so impressed Trump are the Russian team willing to turn into some sort of reality?

[18:30:00]

So, from the Trump administration perspective, having a meeting one- on-one with top Russian security officials is a way to sort of road test what Trump thinks he heard and to save him from embarrassment. Because if they don't hear from the Russian side any willingness to compromise, at least behind closed doors, you could see why that the spokesman would say publicly, they're not compromising on anything. That's standard negotiating tactics.

But if behind closed doors the national security advisor, Secretary of State Rubio, don't hear that Russia's willing to give some concessions, then things could get ugly. ASHER: Yes. I mean, listen, you've got two leaders in Trump and Putin who are both mercurial and both very, very unpredictable. And so, we'll see if either of them, or both of them, live up to their end of the bargain in all of this and what ends up happening to Ukraine. Kim Dozier, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much.

All right. The latest on our breaking news. That plane crash in Toronto, Canada, the Delta Airlines plane flipped upside down on the runway. Everyone was able to get off. There are injuries. Everyone survived. So, that's great news. We'll talk about what investigators will be looking at next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ASHER: Welcome back to CNN Newsroom. I'm Zain Asher. Here are some of the headlines we are watching today. The U.S. and Russia are set to hold a meeting in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to discuss how exactly to end the war in Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his team are expected to meet with a Russian delegation including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Ukrainian officials are not participating in these talks. European leaders held an emergency meeting as concerns grow that they are being sidelined.

[18:35:00]

Beijing strongly criticizing Washington after the U.S. State Department removed a line from its website stating that the United States does not support Taiwan independence. The Chinese foreign ministry urges Washington immediately to correct what it calls mistakes, but the U.S. State Department tells Reuters that it's a routine update and that the United States remains committed to its One China policy.

And South Korean actress Kim Sae-ron has been found dead. Her body was discovered at her home by a friend on Sunday. Police say there are no signs of foul play. This comes as recent deaths of young Korean stars highlight concerns about mental health and pressures in the entertainment industry there. Kim began her career as a child actor and gained widespread recognition. She was just 24 years old.

And a reminder of our breaking news at this hour, Delta Airlines flight has flipped upside down after crashing at Toronto's Pearson Airport. Here you can actually see the jet lying on its back on the runway. All 80 people on board were evacuated. Emergency services says at least 18 people were injured, including one child, and at least two people have suffered critical injuries.

Severe winds have been affecting Toronto throughout the day. A medical helicopter was in the area and offered to help after the plane crashed. The helicopter's pilot asked for more details from air traffic control, who described the scene in this audio clip. I want you to listen to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the crash? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's on runway 2-3, right at the threshold, right at this intersection there. 2-3 and 15 left.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: LifeFlight 1, Medevac just so you are aware, there are people outside walking around the aircraft there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we've got it. The aircraft is upside down and burning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: Yes, the airport -- the aircraft, rather, is upside down and burning. So, joining me live now is, of course, our Richard Quest. So, Richard, in about 30 minutes or within the next 30 minutes or so, we expect to hear from airport authorities in Toronto. Obviously, the main question is really what they know about how this could have happened. But just walk us through some of the other questions that you have top of mind for officials to answer.

QUEST: Right. So -- excuse me. So, from the start you're always going to look at what's the -- what actually caused the crash. And that's going to -- I'm guessing turn down to just by looking at the weather. The weather, the winds, the snow. Weather's going to have played a sizable role in what took place here. Then you want to widen the circle. The approach itself, what were the pilots told? What decisions were made? How had they set the aircraft? How had they set the instruments?

And the various landing, the flaps, et cetera? What was the condition of the aircraft when it made this challenging -- what information did the pilots have at the time they made the landing that was then influenced by the weather -- the conditions on the runway, the gusts of the wind, which were coming from a different direction than the heading of the runway? Therefore, the plane would have been coming in at an angle. It would have been crabbing its way in before finally turning into the heading of the runway. So, that's one aspect.

Next, you're going to look at the survivability factors. So, we're going to -- so you have a fire. We now know there was a fire, not only did we see the black smoke, it was a fuel fed fire. How quickly were the fire brigade on the scene? Were they able to extinguish it quickly? What role did that play?

And then, finally, you're going to be looking at the evacuation of the aircraft itself. The regulations say within 90 seconds, with half the doors being inoperable, here they managed to get everybody out. But how did that proceed?

So, the investigation, will have numerous tentacles, if you will, working groups that will look at specific areas and put together a picture of what happens and then, ultimately, what recommendations need to be made to prevent it happening again.

ASHER: Richard, I was speaking to our analyst, aviation analyst, David Soucie, earlier, and he was really sort of grateful about the outcome of this particular accident because the fact that everyone survived really proves, in his mind, that some of the changes in terms of aviation safety we've seen over the years that have been put in place were actually working.

So, for example, the fact that the wings now are designed to come off in these sorts of situations and the fact that the seats, we talked about this earlier, the 16G seats meant that the seats were much more tightly fixed. And couldn't easily break loose. Give us your take on that.

[18:40:00]

QUEST: Well, that's why I say the investigation will not only be about how did this crash happen. That's going to be the important part in a sense of understanding what happened here. But you're going to want to extrapolate that out through the working groups to work out what worked and what didn't.

And what we will discover is that there were plenty of things that didn't work. I don't know what they are now, but there will have been procedures that were followed that could have been improved. There were procedures that need to be introduced. There will be some things that should be amended. And that's the significance of the air crash investigation.

Yes, it will -- so, at its very, very tightest point, it will look at the circumstances upon which those pilots landed the aircraft. And could they, should they, would they have done something different if the rules had been different. Then you really do get into the why.

The why flying is so safe, and it is because the Canadian investigators -- I imagine, this will be a Canadian investigation, and they're exceptionally, exceptionally experienced at doing this. They will have -- and for no other reason, that the incident happened in Canada, it's a Canada manufactured aircraft, they have the jurisdiction under international treaties.

The NTSB, which is the U.S. investigator, they will be fully part of it. Absolutely fully part of it. And between everybody, a report will be produced. The first comes out within 30 days, gives us a snapshot, gives us a very quick overview. The longer report may take two years, but it will go nuts and bolts, dotting I's, crossing T's, making recommendations as they go on.

The fact that this was not just survivable, because there are -- frankly, there are survivable accidents where people don't survive. But the fact that this was a survivable accident, where everyone survived, bluntly showed the system worked.

ASHER: And, Richard, just a final question, just in terms of the investigation, you know, there are sort of three main areas I would imagine that investigators would look at, and obviously, the black boxes, interviewing the pilots to figure out, you know, what exactly happened. And then, I imagine also air traffic control. Am I missing anything just in terms of the three main areas that investigators will cover here? QUEST: Man/woman, machine/plane, air traffic control/weather. You look at all three. You've set up working groups. We saw this at the crash -- the very deadly crash in D.C. The NTSB set up immediate working groups that were going to look at all aspects.

For instance, how did the crew handle the information they were getting from air traffic control? The information that was given about the wind speed, the condition of the runway, they were given very good condition about drifting snow, dry snow upon wet snow, and the exact circumstances of the contamination. So, they had a lot of information. How did the crew process that information? Once they had that information, should they have continued the landing or should they have aborted? Either gone around or gone elsewhere? Those are very much the issues that they will be looking at and the investigation will go full throttle, if you will, into all of those aspects.

ASHER: All right. Richard Quest, thank you so much. Right. Monday marks 500 days since the October 7th terror attacks on Israel by Hamas. We are now learning when the bodies of several hostages will be returned from Gaza. That story next.

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ASHER: All right. We are learning Israel is preparing to receive the remains of unknown number of hostages from Gaza, that is expected Thursday, a source tells CNN. We don't yet know which bodies are going to be returned. This comes as an Israeli delegation was expected in Cairo Monday for talks on the fragile hostage-ceasefire deal with Hamas, and as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was set to meet with his security cabinet to discuss the agreements of a second phase. Mr. Netanyahu is also vowing to, quote, "finish the job" against Iran with U.S. support.

Joining me live now is CNN military analyst, retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Always good to see you. So, just explain to us at this point, how confident are you that both sides are going to be negotiating in good faith to see the second phase of this deal through?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, Zain, unfortunately, I think it's kind of questionable whether or not they're going to be negotiating in good faith with each other, each side has tested the other side's patients and the Israelis are, of course, looking to receive the remains of the hostages, as you mentioned, and they are also hoping that they will get, of course, the live hostages, the ones that are still alive as well.

We've had, you know, some bumpy aspects to the first phase of this of this ceasefire. And now, the second phase, I think, is going to be a bit trickier to actually realize, and it's going to really require a great deal, not only of patience on both sides, but also willingness for each side to work with the other. And I'm afraid that sometimes that willingness is frayed at best. And that could make it more difficult for the second phase to be realized. Hopefully, it will be realized just for the sake of the hostage families, if nothing else. But it is -- I think we're in basically a very serious phase at the moment and it could create some real difficulties.

ASHER: And just in terms of you know, President Trump's -- the fallout continuing from President Trump's comments that the U.S. should take over Gaza, a senior Hamas official has said in response to Trump's comments that the group is not going to disarm and may even grow after the war in Gaza, warning other countries against cooperating with Israel in the enclave. What do a message -- what do Americans glean from that message from Hamas?

LEIGHTON: Well, I think the key thing is, you know, it's kind of related to what we've seen in the hostage release videos in, you know, the last one, as well as the one before that, where you see some very well outfitted Hamas fighters. Some of them were -- Israeli weapons.

So, it's pretty clear that Hamas is an entity that has not been destroyed by the Israeli military efforts against it since October the 7th. And that, of course, becomes a significant. Issue because Israel's goal is to destroy Hamas, and the fact of the matter seems to me that Hamas is -- has not been destroyed, and it could very well, just as the Hamas leader said, grow in the next few years because of not only Israeli efforts against it, but also statements like President Trump's, which, you know, seek to take out a lot of the population and to create a totally different enclave that the Palestinians have lived in up to this point.

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That, of course, is unacceptable to the Palestinians and we can't expect them to accede to that, at least, voluntarily -- not voluntarily.

ASHER: Yes, the Palestinians don't want to leave and, you know, Egypt and Jordan don't want Palestinian refugees. Just in terms of, though, how Egypt and Jordan respond to President Trump's comments, the onus is really on them at this point to come up with some kind of other plan that is workable for President Trump. What options do they have?

LEIGHTON: Well, apparently Egypt is actually developing something of a plan where they keep the Palestinian population in Gaza and actually conduct development efforts, redevelopment efforts and reconstruction efforts. That is probably something that is more doable from the vantage point, at least of Hamas and of the population in Gaza, than a total removal of that population, which has all kinds of issues, you know, from the standpoint of international law, to say the least.

But basically, if Egypt and Jordan create a plan or a series of plans with the backing of the Gulf states, states like Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, even Saudi Arabia that would, in essence, pay for the reconstruction of Gaza, that would be something that would be much more workable than what we seem to be seeing from President Trump, that I think is a path that they would probably take or should probably take, whether or not the Israelis accept that, of course, is another matter.

ASHER: All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, live for us there, thank you so much for your insight. We'll be back with more news after this short break.

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ASHER: All right. Back to our breaking news. We are waiting for Toronto Pearson International Airport officials to update us on the Delta plane crash from just a few hours ago. I want to bring in Paula Newton who's joining us live now. I mean, Paula, obviously the number one question would be how on earth this could have happened?

That's the question that every single journalist in the room is going to be asking. But just walk us through from your perspective. I mean, think about the sort of conditions under which these passengers would have been forced to evacuate this plane. This plane would have crash landed at the airport, flipped over.

Obviously, we don't actually know what happened, but the plane was upside down. Just give us your sense of what the passengers is on this plane would have actually gone through emotionally as they evacuated this aircraft. I mean, that the image beggars' belief.

NEWTON: It's incredible. And I'm sure in the coming hours and days, we will continue to hear the stories, but these are jets that I'm on -- I was just on this kind of a jet flying into New York. I was at Toronto airport. It is a tight squeeze in there. There were 80 -- 76 passengers. That's a full flight. Four crew members.

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Terrifying because, hopefully, everyone had their seatbelts on, which were supposed to have in terms of coming in for a landing on that. But then, just as quickly, everyone would have been telling them to take the seatbelt off and evacuate as soon as possible.

Now, Zain, we do see the microphones there set to go at Pearson Airport there. It will be Deborah Flint who is the lead there at Toronto Airport. She was formerly at LAX. She has a lot of experience. She will not be, you know, trying to get ahead of the investigation here, but she will let us know exactly what the weather conditions were, the kind of emergency response that there was, what time they got the call, how quickly they were able to get the site and what the first responders saw when they got to the airplane.

Key here as we continue to listen to her on what they believe the conditions were at that hour when that plane attempted its landing.

ASHER: Yes, we'll really want to know. A lot of people want to know, you know, whether the weather played any kind of part in all of this. All right. Paula Newton, live for us there. Thank you so much.

All right. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Zain Asher. Stay with CNN. More news after this short break.

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