Delta Air Lines says that the final passenger who was hospitalized following the crash landing of Flight 4819 at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday afternoon has now been released just three days after the horrific accident.
There were 80 people onboard the CRJ regional jet operated by Delta's wholly owned subsidiary Endeavour Air as Delta Connection. Of those, there were 76 passengers, including a young child, and four crew members comprising two pilots and two flight attendants.
In the aftermath of the fiery crash, all passengers successfully evacuated the inverted wreckage, but 21 passengers had to be transported to local hospitals, including the child, who is believed to have been airlifted to a specialist pediatric unit.
Most of those taken to hospital were believed to have sustained only minor injuries and by Wednesday morning, Delta had confirmed that all but one of the injured had been discharged from hospital.
The condition of the final passenger was, however, feared to be much more serious, although it now appears that initial accounts of the passenger sustaining critical injuries were not entirely accurate.
"All 21 injured passengers initially transported to local hospitals following Monday's accident involving Delta Connection Flight 4819, operated by Endeavor Air, have been released," the airline said in an updated posted on Thursday.
"The Delta and Endeavor families are grateful that all those injured Monday have been released from the hospital, and we extend our thanks to everyone who provided care to them over the past few days," commented chief executive Ed Bastian.
"We will continue to connect one-on-one with customers, employees and loved ones as we move forward to make sure their needs are met with care," Bastian added.
On Wednesday, it also emerged that Delta offered passengers onboard Flight 4819 an initial goodwill gesture payment of $30,000 each, which could cost the airline $2.28 million if all the passengers accepted the payment.
Delta insists the gesture has no strings attached and does not preclude them from taking legal action against Delta or Endeavour in the future.
A spokesperson for the embattled carrier said its teams were continuing to support passengers on the flight, providing accommodation, flying loved ones to be with them, and covering reasonable expenses as it may be some weeks before they can be repatriated with their belongings.
Accident investigators have again urged the public not to speculate on the cause of the accident and to await a preliminary report from Canada's Transportation Safety Board which is leading the investigation.
TSB Senior Investigator Ken Webster insists that it remains "far too early" to determine the cause of the crash but reassured the public that the cockpit voice and flight data recorders had already been recovered and sent to a specialist lab for analysis.