Toronto Passengers Recall Moments of the Plane Crash

All 80 passengers on board are likely to survive. Two people recalled landing upside down following what appeared to be a regular descent.

The 80 passengers and crew members on the Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis that crashed and overturned at Toronto's airport are likely to survive.

Two passengers described a seemingly ordinary descent that unexpectedly turned them upside down.

Pete Koukov

Mr. Koukov, 28, a professional skier from Colorado, was on his way to Toronto to shoot a ski video. Nothing seemed wrong during the final descent, he explained in an interview, until the wheels impacted the ground and the plane skidded on its right side.

Mr. Koukov reported seeing flames when the plane crashed from his window seat on the left side. "I unbuckled pretty fast and kind of lowered myself to the floor, which was the ceiling," he told me. "People were panicking."

The plane ended up belly up. He posted a video on Instagram of the moment he and other passengers climbed across seats and out an emergency exit onto a snow-streaked runway.

Pete Carlson

Mr. Carlson, a paramedic, was headed to a meeting in Toronto. Passengers were told there were heavy gusts, but he stated the accident startled him from what had started as a typical descent.

"One minute, you're landing, waiting to see your friends and family. "And the next minute, you're physically upside-down and completely turned around," he told the Canadian public broadcaster, the CBC. "It was cement and metal."

After the plane lost a wing and rolled, there was a tangible sense of community in the cabins. "Everyone on that plane suddenly became very close in terms of how to help one another, how to console one another, and that was powerful," he told me.

He spotted a woman who had ended up behind a seat, as well as a mother and a boy sitting on the aircraft's ceiling, which was now the floor. He had no idea how any of them were, he said. "My fatherly instinct and background as a paramedic kind of kicked in," he added, directing his attention to ensuring that everyone got off the plane.

He claimed jet fuel was flowing down the plane's windows.

Mr. Carlson, who received a scrape on his head, stated that after abandoning the jet, he wanted to get as far away as possible after noticing a missing wing and hearing explosions. After putting his coat on a fellow traveler, he took a photo with his phone and forwarded it to family, friends, and colleagues to ensure his safety.

"This is my reality right now: down on the tarmac and alive, which is amazing," he remarked, describing his feelings.

A friend who had come to the airport to pick him up made his way to the tarmac and began treating others. Passengers who were injured were swiftly loaded onto buses and transferred to safety, he said.