Toronto plane crash survivor describes what he saw during landing

Let's go right now to John Nelso who was a passenger on the plane John, thank you so much for being with We're so glad you're okay. I mean, who would have known that you were in a plane crash a few hours ago? It's unbelievable.

You have video that you recorded We've been watching. Tell us when you first realized something was the matter. Yeah.

It was a typical flight from Minneapolis to Toronto. and we were coming in, and I did notice that, like, the winds were super gusty. The snow, had kind of blown over the, the And so coming in and just, it was routine, but like, it was noticeable that the runways were kind of in a weird condition.

And when we hit, it was just a s light, like, hit the ground and the plane went sideways and I believe, we skidded, like, on our side and then flipped over on our bac where we, ended up there was like a big fireball on the left side of the plane. And when we got finished, it was, I was upside down. Everybody else was there as well I don't think thankfully, everybody was okay.

we try to get out of there as quickly as possible. And then shortly thereafter, I got done filming the video. There was another explosion, but luckily the firefighters got out of there.

They were there quickly. It sounds like. Yeah.

So where were you seated in the I was in, like, row ten. Other plane. So just front of the wing.

And did you see the wing come of no. By that point, we were being tossed around. I was just trying to hold on to everything at that point.

And how did you how did you get yourself out of your seatbelt? And did everyone stay in their s that you could tell? Was everyone hanging upside down Had anyone slipped out of their seatbelts?

Yeah. I mean, it was mass chaos. I was upside down.

The lady next to me was upside d we kind of let ourselves go and to hit the ceiling, which is surreal feeling. and then everybody was just like get out, get out, get out. We could smell like jet fuel.

even now, I smell like jet fuel. and then we just crawled out the back of their airplane. The firefighters, the EMTs were there right away.

Was anyone injured? I mean, what did you see? We know there were some injuries What was it like?

Chaos. There was injuries. There was hurt individuals.

but, yeah, I mean, it's just all the emotional roller coaster that you go through, but things you hope you and thro see again. Right. How how how are you feeling?

stressed. Nervous. Shaky.

Still. I I'm sorry, John, you cut out for just a second. I was asked how you felt, and you'd said tha Oh, you're feeling really shaky, and we can pick that up from you You must be very.

Yeah, very, very stressed from t Yeah. A lot of stress. you.

It's amazing that we're still he So I. Hope to not do that again. And it really is amazing.

And that's what experts have been telling u when when you landed with the hard la and went to the side and then the plane was on, was upside down. Did that all happen very quickly And what did that physically feel like for you as you were being tossed around? Yeah.

I mean, it's it's, you know, it happens so quickly, right? You hit there's this like giant, like palm crack you know, it's this like super l kind of thing happens. And then everything just goes literally sideways.

And it happens so fast. and I just remember, like, kind of pulling myself in and trying not to hit my head against anything. And, luckily, our flight attenda and everything were, helpful for us, so I, they are signaling me that I do need to move on, but, is there anything else?

Just really quickly. Do you know why the plane flippe Do you know if. Did it feel like it dipped one way or the other with the wi I think it I don't know, I'm no expert on t I will let them figure it out.

it feels like snow, wind, hard landing, all of it together And have you talked to your fami Are you going to see them? I, I'll see them hopefully tomor John, that's not soon enough, bu so glad you're going to see them I'm so glad that you're with us. And thank you so much for joining us tonight.

We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.

I do want to bring in now Aaron He's a commercial pilot, a flight instructor, and he's with us tonight. Here's some of what John was say there in that interview. Were you able to hear that?

I heard John's words loud and cl And there is there's nothing quite as, harrowing as listening to someone's first account of a situation such as this, where you've walked away from so that, you were probably sure it was the end. And I'm so happy that so many people wal from this one. Absolutely.

Yeah, it's it's unbelievable. And I know you say that this was a completely routine fl until the very final seconds before landing. It seems like that's what we've maybe kind of gusty.

We heard that from John. Another passenger said he felt like it was very normal. Can you talk to us still?

About what wind conditions were like and what pilots would have been with as they were landing here? Absolutely. Brianna.

cut me off if you need to. I tend to drone on a little bit about these things. this is, an environmental factors acciden which will also have layers of h factors and procedure and traini Every single accident has those three things in them a very demanding, very challenging conditions.

Today at the Pearson airport. We had winds from the the numbers that I saw around the time of th to 70 at 25, gusting to 40 to 35 I wouldn't be surprised if there were a few gusts that they got in there over 45, maybe even 50 knots, just at the time when the DRG was touching down, which would be that very critica in, in the season's flight, for And so the snow component with t over the runways and it was even visible to passe What kind of difficulty does tha The, the Pearson equipment, the the snow removal at Pearson would have been out probably for four days straight because we've had something like I think we've had 25 to 30in or more of snow. That doesn't sound like a lot of for a lot of people, you know, in other places in North America.

But, those, equipment operators would have been going around and around the runways trying to make those runways as safe as possible. And I would expect that in the very last seconds of there could have been a strong g which would have brought, quite a bit of blowing snow across the runway, possibly limiting the pilot's view of the while they were landing in the very final seconds of tou maybe the last 20 or even 10s. So environmental factors are playing a large role in this one for sure.

Yeah. And their reports to investigators will be critica certainly what they experienced. Erin Murphy, thank you so much.

We really appreciate your insigh Thank you for having me on. I'm glad everybody's okay. we are also so glad.