A passenger on the flight that crashed while landing in Toronto is opening up about the terrifying ordeal.
Pete Koukov was on board the Delta flight that flipped upside down as it crashed on the runway at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday, Feb. 17.
“I didn’t really notice anything wrong until the moment we hit the ground,” Koukov said on TODAY Feb. 18. “The wheels touched down and then all of a sudden … I just remember being fully sideways."
“I was looking down and just seeing sparks, flames and whatever was grinding against the ground,” he continued. “It happened pretty dang quick and we were just upside-down, hanging from our seat belts.”
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All 80 people on board were evacuated following the crash, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
At least 18 people were injured in the crash, and there were no fatalities, NBC News reported. Two people were airlifted to a trauma center and one child was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.
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Koukov shared an Instagram video of the overturned plane, showing footage of people helping each other out the door and onto the snowy runway.
When the plane flipped over, Koukov said everyone “was just hanging there,” suspended by their seat belts.
At first, Koukov said the crew told passengers to not leave their seats, then gave the all clear for everyone to unclip and get down.
“At that point, people were feeling pretty frantic,” Koukov recalled. “Most people needed help from someone who had already got down, and then we kind of slowly moved off the plane. It seemed pretty organized … everyone got off in a pretty orderly fashion.”
Officials said the cause of the crash is not yet known. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will lead an investigation into the crash, according to the FAA.
Around the time of the crash, there were wind gusts approaching 40 miles per hour on the runway, accompanied by blowing snow.
Delta Connection flight 4819, operated by Endeavor Air using a CRJ-900 aircraft, had been en route to Toronto from Minneapolis.
“The hearts of the entire global Delta family are with those affected by today’s incident at Toronto-Pearson International Airport,” Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement Monday night. “I want to express my thanks to the many Delta and Endeavor team members and the first responders on site.”
Delta sent an incident response team, including people who will “provide support for customers and their loved ones,” to the Toronto airport, the company said Monday evening in an X post.
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