Toronto, Feb. 18 -- Eighty passengers had a miraculous escape when their jet crashed here and flipped while landing in heavy wind in a snowed-in airport. The Delta flight flying in from Minneapolis in the US lost one wing when it hit the runway, turned over on Monday afternoon, and lay on its back as the crew helped the passengers safely off the plane. Officials said that 18 people, including a child, were taken to hospitals and two were in a critical, but not life-threatening, condition.

Videos of the crash showed crew members shepherding passengers out of the plane on a snow-swept airfield while firefighters rushed to coat the plane and the surrounding area with foam to prevent a fire outbreak. The Canadian-made Embraer CRJ-900 jet was...