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Topics: World News, Travel, Weather
Mia Williams
A passenger on the Delta Air Lines flight has spoken about being 'tossed around' after the plane crash-landed upside down in Toronto.
The airplane, which had 76 passengers and four crew members on board, was tipped upside down as it came into land in Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday evening (17 February) from Minneapolis.
All the passengers luckily managed to survive; however, at least 18 people on board the aircraft were injured following the crash-landing, though their injuries were 'relatively minor', according to Deborah Flint, CEO of Greater Toronto Airports Authority (via Associated Press).
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The exact cause of the crash is still unknown, however, it is suspected by experts that the recent weather - which included high wind speeds and a snowstorm - might have have an impact, The Independent reports.
And now, a passenger onboard the flight has revealed what happened from the inside, describing the crash as 'mass chaos'.
John Nelson spoke to CNN soon after the accident, noting he'd noticed the 'gusty' winds and snow on the runway when they came into land, adding: "It was routine, but it was noticeable that the runways were in a weird condition."
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He continued: "When we hit, it was a super hard, hit the ground and the plane went sideways and I believe we skidded on our side and then flipped over on our back where we ended up. There was like a fireball outside the left side of the plane and when we got finished. "
Explaining how it felt from inside as everyone tried to exit the aircraft, he added: "It was mass chaos, I was upside down, a lady next to me was upside down, we kind of let ourselves go and fell to hit the ceiling, which was [a] surreal feeling, and then everybody was just like, ‘Get out, get out, get out,’ we could smell jet fuel."
Nelson went on to say that there was 'another explosion' as everyone was leaving the aircraft, though he said the firefighters were quick to extinguish the flames.
"We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible." he said.
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Footage on social media shows people desperately fleeing the aircraft, trying to shield from the snow storm and severe winds.
According to NBC 5 Chicago, audio from the control towers warned pilots of a possible air flow 'bump' as they came into land following a prior aircraft's descent.
John Cox, a pilot and CEO of aviation safety consulting firm Safety Operating Systems, said it was 'very rare to see something like this', adding: "The weather conditions were windy. The wind was out of the west at 27 to 35 knots, which is about 38 miles an hour. So it was windy. But the airplanes are designed and certified to handle that. The pilots are trained and experienced to handle that."
An investigation into the exact cause of the crash is underway, with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada leading it with assistance from The National Transportation Safety Board, according to a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), ABC News reports.