Passenger describes Toronto plane crash, rollover

so Pete it it's really good to see you uh I cannot believe I'm sitting across from someone who just survived a plane crash uh can you help me understand what happened uh yeah it feels equally good to be sitting here obviously um but we a little disoriented on time six hours ago uh we're coming into land and there had been comment early in the flight about strong winds and as we made our descent and made touchdown it was just a very um forceful uh event where all of a sudden everything just kind of went sideways

and then next thing I know is kind of a a blink and I'm upside down still strapped in do you do you remember what it sounded like do you remember do you remember if you flipped over like this or or front end uh I believe it was kind of flatal or side roll based on kind of what we saw when we got out but again very disorienting to you know the one minute you're Landing kind of waiting to see your friends and your people and the next minute you're physically upside down and just really turned

around but it sounded I mean it was just cement and metal you know no time to be scared uh oh yeah plenty of time yeah I think the absolute initial feeling is just need to get out of this um and so made sense of kind of where we were and being upside down and took my seat belt off which I had obviously left fastened for the landing and as I took it off crashed down onto the ceiling which had become the floor because we were upside down so you were people quiet were they yelling what

was happening uh I wouldn't call it quiet or yelling everyone was just what I saw was everyone on that plane suddenly became very close in terms of how to help one another how to console one another and uh um and that was powerful but yeah there was definite what now who's leading how do we find ourselves away from this could you tell if people were okay I mean I see you you've got a cut here you also have yeah yeah a little Baler than I was this morning um I'm okay uh not really sure when

this happened whether it was during the landing I believe it was um but yes everyone seemed kind of physically and that's what we did you could see kind of row by row or area by area people were checking one another out making decisions about whether we would help one another with their straps or if by doing that would they be landing on somebody else there was one woman in the row behind me who was um under the seats which was very hard to see and then there was a a boy young boy and his mother

sitting on the floor on the ceiling on the floor and so my fatherly Instinct and background as a paramedic kind of kicked in and so I was paying the most attention I guess to those two people so what does that mean were you just were they physically hurt or were you just tring trying to get them off the the plane trying to get them off the plane yeah I couldn't wasn't in a position to assess necessarily um injury both were moving fine um but very scared in particular the the woman beneath the seats and then

it was kind of a look around of where is an exit you know um how did I you can listen to the the pre-flight all you want but when you're suddenly upside down rolled over everything kind of goes out the door so my attention was about 30% towards who is moving us out and then how can I help promote flow in that direction do you think that was all your paramedic training just kicking in there like the passenger part of you was pushed aside for the paramedic part of you I no I I definitely had

a lot of Passenger part I think I had a healthy amount of of paramedic as we'd call it in terms of helping you know help this woman out from under the chair uh had to really kind of forcefully you know lift slash drag but a very like human component turned on when we could smell the gas and and then we looked over and the windows were just there was just liquid pouring over the the you know the small windows and suddenly it smelled very strong of um what I heard people later call AV gas well

you probably know this but I mean even as you sit here I I can smell the gas on you you you can too right yeah ready for a shower but I so I think there was paramedic of help move and then I as a father I saw this boy and mom who were just you know everyone seemed not oddly calm but everyone seemed like they were there to make sure we helped each other and you know moved out of Harm's Way so so you get you climb out of the plane up the plane's upside down

so you get onto the tarmac and and then what happens yes so was able to help free and slide our friend and Mom kid first and then a gentleman who I believe was like a off-duty Airline person was next to me we all made our way kind of I don't know six to eight feet and then climbed out and I it felt like I was stepping onto the tundra first of all it just snow just kind of blowing and couldn't really see structures anywhere so it was I didn't care how cold it was I didn't

care how far I had to walk how long I had to stand I just all of us wanted to just be out of the aircraft and were you walking at this point had the had the wings snapped off I believe so yeah I mean there was nothing there was a wing there before and when we went out that exit there was no Wing to be found and so once we got back to a safe distance and kind of checked one another because there's so much adrenaline and stress um that's when I kind of took uh

what's the word I'm looking for evaluated the scenario realized that there was no wing on that side and the goal was really to get further and further away from from the risk and then we heard a small um I guess I don't really know size of EXP explosions but we heard an explosion as the fire department was doing you know their efforts to extinguish any risk so what was the explosion you think I I don't know I just it was uh we were far enough away as a as a group I think there were 75

or 80 of us on the flight and suddenly that happened I have I've not looked at news or anything to know if that exists to date or on on media but there was a sizable explosion and then by that point there was a firetruck driving towards us on the tarmac and so we all kind of gathered and took Refuge behind that and uh and looked from afar sounds like this is all coming at you and sort of like Movie images in yeah yeah my priorities have been pretty simple since that event which is communication with

wife and children family friends even some you know colleagues and just really trying to to just kind of a pinch me day like you know no kidding you're here for a par conference you had paramedic friends who were picking you up and I know they were tracking the plane and then saw this huge plume of smoke and asked you I think they texted you like are you okay are you down what did you say do you remember how you responded I responded when we stopped the woman and I had been walking together that I had

kind of aided in getting out and I took my coat off and I had to grab my phones out of there before I put my cat onto her and while having my phone it was just not a big phone guy and I don't even have social media but part of me was like I want to remember this this may be good for me and so I took a photograph of it and uh simply sent it saying you know this is my reality right now so down but I'm on the tarmac down on the tarmac and

alive uh which is is again really amazing it is and then uh your friend who came to get you started found his way to the tarmac and started treating people as well right yeah yeah so the paramedic arrival and you know along with police and fire was just amazing I mean they quickly put those of us that were injured with any sort of blood or sign of trauma onto a single bus moved us safe distance away and started to you know triage and and really assess people's um severity of of injury or ailment and there

was Chief Mike Nolan uh who jumped right in and and really assisted and you know the groups the paramedics in particular went from helping kind of what is bleeding to in time once they got everyone moved to the appropriate sites of care they just listened and they asked the right questions and that was I think the most powerful part of today was there was just just people no countries no nothing it was just people together um helping each other you got to go look after yourself yeah thank you thank you for taking time really appreciate

it thank you [Music]