U.S. Marine Corps Col. J. Joseph (Ret.) told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS safety designs on the plane that crashed last week in Toronto with 80 passengers and crew members on board probably saved “some lives that day.”

Col. Joseph told KSTP that the government does a survivability study after every airplane crash and shares that information with the makers and manufacturers of airliner passenger jets to help make improvements in the future.

“The genesis of all the safety features in this aircraft, and all the modern aircraft, are the result of previous mishaps,” said Joseph.

Joseph said fuel delivery and storage on airliners changed after a crash in 1996.

“The fuel system, for example, on TWA 800, where they theorized that a fuel vapor in a tank with a straight current set an explosion off,” said Joseph.

Also, said Joseph, the use of less-flammable material for seat cushions and other components inside an airplane is something that happened after the government studied a fatal crash 42 years ago.

“The mishap that occurred in 1983 in Cincinnati, uh, 43 people on board the airplane, we lost 23, many of them to smoke inhalation,” said Joseph.

Joseph said, statistically speaking, air travel is still the safest mode of transportation in the U.S.

He also said a preliminary finding of the Delta accident would likely happen within the next 60 days, but the final report might take up to a year to complete.