Newly released video has shown in dramatic detail the moment a plane with 80 people on board flipped while landing during icy weather in Canada.
Passengers, all of whom survived the fiery mishap at Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday (Tuesday AEDT), were left hanging upside down “like bats” in the aircraft as fire crews scrambled to extinguish the rising flames.
Video obtained by CNN shows the plane landing hard on the runway, with the plane’s rear landing gear buckling and the right wing soon shearing away in a fireball.
The fuselage rolled over as it skid, eventually leaving it belly-up, streaked with black residue. Inside, seat-belted passengers were suspended from their seats.
The rollover left passengers hanging aloft, according to two people on-board, John Nelson and Peter Koukov.
“We were upside down hanging like bats,” Koukov said.
He was able to unbuckle himself and stand upright on the ceiling of the plane, but some people needed help getting down from their seats.
Twenty-one people were taken to hospitals with injuries, including a child listed in good condition on Monday, officials said.
All but two of them had been released from hospital on Tuesday morning (early Wednesday AEDT), officials said.
US man Pete Carlson was on board and told CBC News anchor Adrienne Arsenault it was “really amazing” he and his fellow passengers were alive.
US man Pete Carlson was on board and told CBC News anchor Adrienne Arsenault it was “really amazing” he and his fellow passengers were alive.
“Everything just kind of went sideways,” Carlson recalled.
“One minute you’re landing, kind of waiting to see your friends and your people, and the next minute you’re physically upside down.”
Carlson said he was left with only a cut on the top of his head after escaping the overturned plane.
Koukov, 28, a professional skier from Colorado, told the New York Times the flight seemed normal up until the final descent.
The second that the wheels hit the ground, then everything happened,” he said.
“The next thing I know, we’re sideways.”
Koukov was in a window seat and had a front-row view of the plane as it caught fire.
“So you look down and you see sparks and flames on the side that’s touching the ground,” he added.
“We ended up completely upside-down. I unbuckled pretty fast and kind of lowered myself to the floor, which was the ceiling. People were panicking.”
Koukov shared footage of his escape from the plane on Instagram. In it, flight crew can be heard telling passengers to “drop everything”.
“Oh my god, I was just on this f—-ing plane,” he said.
Nelson told local media he saw a “big fireball” on the left side of the plane after the crash.
“When we hit, it was just super hard, it hit the ground, and the plane went sideways,” Nelson said.
“Delta Air Lines Flight 4819, operated by Endeavor Air, crashed while landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Canada around 2.45pm local time,” the airport said in a statement, noting the aircraft had departed from Minneapolis/St Paul International Airport.
In a statement, Delta Airlines confirmed that the aircraft was carrying 80 people.
“The flight was carrying a total of 80 people – 76 passengers and four crew.”
It is too early to say what caused the plane to flip but weather may have played a factor.
Strong winds had been buffeting the Toronto area all day, and airport personnel had worked through the night to clear remnants of the approximately 20 centimetres of snow that blanketed the airport over the weekend.
The temperature was about minus 8 degrees.
The harrowing incident briefly halted traffic at Canada’s busiest airport and is certain to raise questions amid heightened flight safety concerns in the US.
Fire engines raced onto the tarmac and began spraying thick sheets of white fire retardant over the aircraft’s battered fuselage.
It’s unclear where the fire originated, but video shows the plane’s fiberglass frame had melted around the engine and thick black streaks stained its side.
In the overturned plane, flight attendants helped passengers crawl out of open exit doors, urging people to leave belongings behind, though some still exited with bags in tow, video from Koukov shows.
Evacuees jumped several feet from the door frames onto the snow-covered ground as sprays of fire retardant rained overhead. Some people hugged themselves as protection from the wind as they moved away from the plane, looking back at what they just endured.
The crash is the fourth major aviation accident in North America in the past month and comes three weeks after an American Airlines plane collided midair with a US Army Black Hawk helicopter in Washington, DC, killing all 67 people aboard.
