Toronto Pearson plane crash: Delta Flight 4819 passengers recount what happened

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All but two of 21 Delta Air Lines flight 4819 passengers who were injured Monday during a crash at Pearson airport have been released from hospital.

The flight, operated by subsidiary Endeavor Air, from Minneapolis to Toronto, crashed on the tarmac while landing around 2:30 p.m.

Passengers have been sharing their stories of the frightful event as the plane skid and flipped over.

PETE KOUKOV

Pete Koukov, who posted video on Instagram of him climbing out of the plane, told NBC”s TODAY show, “I didn’t notice anything wrong until the moment we hit the ground.

“For me, it was just like the wheels touched down and all of the sudden I was in the window seat on the looker’s left side, and then all of the sudden I remember being fully sideways and I was looking down and just seeing sparks and flames and whatever was grinding against the ground.

“Yeah, it happened pretty dang quick and we were upside down hanging from our seatbelts. Me, and the lady next to me, we got out pretty quick. We unclipped like you would, just kind of lowered ourselves to be on the ground, which was the roof I guess. We did it really quickly, like we both immediately got our bearings, unclipped, got down and then they announced not to get out of our seats, like I can’t remember for how long, but just about a minute and then they were like, ‘OK, get down.’

“Then at that point, people were feeling pretty frantic and everyone was able to get down. And then we just kind of slowly moved off the plane. It seemed pretty organized. Everyone got off in a pretty orderly fashion. It didn’t seem too insane like once the plane had stopped and everyone realized, for the most part, they were OK. Because no one was seriously injured.”

JOHN NELSON

John Nelson, who was in row 10, posted video of himself on the tarmac looking back at the upside down plane on his Facebook page. He told CNN: “It was a typical flight from Minneapolis to Toronto. And we were coming in, and I did notice the winds were gusty, the snow had kind of blown over the runways.

“So coming in it was routine but it was noticeable the runways were in kind of in a weird condition and when we hit it was just like a super hard, like a hit to the ground, and the plane went sideways and I believe we skidded like on our side and then flipped over on our back. It happened so quickly. It’s like this super loud bang kind of thing happens and then everything goes literally sideways. I just remember kind of pulling myself in and trying not to hit my head against anything.

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“Where we ended up, there was like a thick fireball out of the left side of the plane. When we got finished, I was upside down. Everybody else was there as well. It was mass chaos. We kind of let ourselves go to hit the ceiling, which was a surreal feeling. And then everybody was like, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’ You could smell jet fuel. And then we just crawled out the back of the airplane.

“Luckily our flight attendants, and everything, were helpful for us. Firefighters, EMTs, were there right away. There was injuries. There were hurt individuals. All the emotional roller-coaster that you go through. Things that you hope you never want to see again. Thankfully, everybody was OK. We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible. And then shortly thereafter, once I filmed the video, there was another explosion, luckily the firefighters got it out.

“It’s amazing that we’re still here. I’d rather not do that again.”