Passengers aboard a Delta Air Lines flight that crashed in Canada on Monday found themselves hanging upside down from their seats after the aircraft flipped over upon landing, as seen in videos circulating on social media.
In one Snapchat video, passenger Ashley Zook appeared suspended in her seat inside the darkened cabin, secured only by her seatbelt. The footage then cut to her walking beside the overturned plane amid strong winds. “I was just in a plane crash, oh my god,” she said breathlessly.
The aircraft lay on its back on the snowy tarmac at Toronto airport, where temperatures had plunged well below freezing. Skier Pete Koukov, another passenger, posted a video on Instagram, showing himself climbing out of the plane’s door while a flight attendant in an Endeavor Air uniform assisted passengers. “Drop everything, drop everything, come on,” the flight attendant urged while balancing on the underside of the wing.
Standing outside, Koukov repeatedly cursed in shock as he moved away from the wreckage. “I was just on this fucking plane,” he exclaimed, while others staggered out, some clutching their belongings. “Being alive feels pretty cool today,” he captioned his video.
Emergency services in the background could be seen spraying water on the aircraft, which had a scraped and blackened underside.
Speaking to CNN later, Koukov recalled, “We were upside down hanging like bats” and had no warning before impact. Fellow passenger John Nelson added that he had heard explosions. “When we got finished, I was upside down, everybody else was there as well,” he said. “We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible.”
Endeavor Air flight 4819 had been carrying 80 people—76 passengers and four crew members—when it attempted to land in Toronto at around 3:30 p.m. after departing from Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Authorities confirmed that 18 people sustained injuries, but no fatalities were reported.
Passenger Peter Carlson described the terrifying experience to CBC, saying, “The absolute initial feeling is just [the] need to get out of this.” He noted that in the aftermath, “everyone on that plane suddenly became very close, in terms of how to help one another, how to console one another.”
Delta acknowledged the crash in a statement, confirming that there were no fatalities and promising to provide more details as the situation developed.
The incident occurred as Toronto airlines scrambled to accommodate passengers following numerous weekend flight cancellations caused by a massive snowstorm.
