‘It’s really a miracle’: Delta plane crash survivors share their stories

A passenger aboard the plane, John Nelson, says it was a typical flight until the plane made a hard landing, skidding sideways and flipping over.

At around 2:15 p.m. on Monday, a commuter plane crash landed at Toronto Pearson airport, skidded on its side, and landed on its roof.

The incident happened on Terminal 3’s Runway 23 and injured 21 passengers, 19 of whom have been released from the hospital as of Tuesday.

All 80 people onboard the plane, including four crew members, have been accounted for.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Here are some of their stories:

‘We still have a mission in life to finish,’ says Catholic priest reflecting on crash

A Catholic priest from the Philippines en route to Toronto to visit relatives is among the 80 people who survived Monday’s plane crash at Pearson airport.

Father Joal Bernales originally took off from Phoenix, Ariz., on a red-eye flight to Toronto but had to stop in St. Paul, Minn., to catch a connecting flight.

Bernales, who was not injured, spoke with CP24.com on Tuesday afternoon about his experience.

“I’m absolutely fine with here in the house with my cousin. Of course, resting. You know, thinking about what happened yesterday, the plane crash,” said Bernales, who is the pastor of the Archdiocesan Shrine and Parish of St. Joseph in the municipality of San Jose in the Bicol Region.

“For me, it’s really a miracle. I would see everything in the perspective, of course, of faith, in God’s eyes.”

Bernales said the flight from Minneapolis to Toronto was mostly uneventful. He had rested and prayed and was looking forward to landing at Pearson and heading to his cousin’s home in Markham to spend some time with family members, including his niece, who travelled to Canada late last year on a student visa.

Unfortunately, things did not go entirely as planned.

“So for me, it was really hard touchdown. I was so aware of that, so hard. And then, that’s the time it was off balance,” he shared, adding during that moment remained calm.

“And then everything in there comes so fast, and then it stops. But when the plane stopped, everything is in chaos. But good thing that there’s still humanity, that all of us were saying, ‘Are you good? Are you good? Are you good?’.”

Bernales, who, along with his seatmate and several other passengers, was left hanging upside down, said he did see some people who were hurt, with “blood in the face,” he said.

The person sitting beside Bernales in the 6th row then unclipped their seat belt and fell to the ceiling of the overturned plane. They then proceeded to assist Bernales before they were both quickly ushered out of the plane, which he said smelled of fuel. He said they were among the last batch of people evacuated from the aircraft and that moments after disembarking there was an explosion.

Bernales said he was promptly picked up by a shuttle bus and taken to Terminal 1 with a number of other passengers. He said they spoke with officials for a time and were offered some food and drinks before being taken to the nearby Sheraton Hotel. It wasn’t until after 7 p.m. that he was finally able to head home with his cousins.

Francis Prima said he was driving on the highway with his wife and son to pick up his cousin when he missed a call from an unknown number. That caller was Bernales, who calmly informed him that the plane he’d been travelling in had crashed upon landing at Pearson.

“When I heard the voicemail, it said,’ Oh cousin, this is Joal. I’ve already landed, but my plane crashed, but I’m okay,” shared Prima, who had not yet heard about the incident.

“So I turned on the news and that’s where I got worried, even though he said it’s okay. … I’m really grateful that’s he’s OK, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I think he’s ready to take his next flight again on Thursday.”

Thinking back on the ordeal he’s endured, Bernales said he feels that everyone who survived did so for a reason.

“You know, my reflection [on this], is that, yeah, we still have a mission in life to finish, because all of us is in the hand of God,” said Bernales, who has reached out to his diocese asking them to perform a mass of Thanksgiving.

“I think all of us, the 80 passengers and crew, still have a mission in life to finish in God’s time, God’s purpose. So that’s what I’m thinking right now. Because seeing objectively on YouTube, on the news, the way the plane landed, it’s crazy. You know, all the passengers have no chance of leaving, no chance of surviving.”

After three weeks of vacation, Bernales will begin his trek home via Phoenix on Thursday.

Admitting that he isn’t entirely sure how he feels about flying again, Brernales said his focus is to get home and continue his work and his ministry in his parish.

‘Mass chaos:’ says passenger of scene inside plane after crash

John Nelson, another Delta 4819 passenger, says he feels lucky to be alive.

Nelson was seated in the aircraft’s 10th row, in front of the wing, when the aircraft made a hard landing, skidded onto its side, and flipped onto its roof. He also described seeing a “big fireball on the left side of the plane” at that time.

Nelson, who said he was wearing his seatbelt when the crash occurred, told CNN on Monday evening that he heard a “super loud bang” as the plane hit the tarmac moments before “everything just goes literally sideways.”

“It happened so fast that I just remember, like, kind of pulling myself in and trying not to hit my head against anything,” said Nelson, who, along with his fellow passengers was “tossed around.”

“When we got finished, I was upside down, everybody else was there as well. … We tried to get out of there as quickly as possible.”

He said they promptly unbuckled themselves and fell to the plane’s ceiling, which he described as a “surreal feeling,” before crawling to the back of the jet fuel-smelling aircraft and exiting with the assistance of the flight crew.

“Even now I smell like jet fuel,” said Nelson, who described the scene as “mass chaos” with people yelling “get out, get out, get out.”

“The firefighters, the EMTs were there right away.”

Nelson said he took out his phone at that point and captured some of what was happening on video. He said he stopped filming shortly before he heard a second explosion.

“Luckily, the firefighters got out of there,” he said.

Nelson said some passengers were injured, but most seemed OK, adding that he’s been left feeling “stressed, nervous, and shaky” following the ordeal.

“It’s amazing that we’re still here. I hope to not do that again,” he said, adding that nothing seemed unusual about the roughly two-hour flight from Minneapolis-Saint Paul to Toronto.

The only atypical thing Nelson said he noticed were “super gusty winds” as the plane approached the snowy tarmac.

“The snow had kind of blown over the runways, and so coming in, it just was routine, but like, it was noticeable that the runways were kind of in a weird condition,” he said.

Leaving it to the experts to determine exactly why the plane crash-landed, Nelson said he’s assuming the incident was caused by a combination of the hard landing, snow and wind — “all of it, together.”

Survivor describes passengers ‘hanging like bats’ inside overturned plane

Pete Koukov has had an “interesting last 24 hours.”

Koukov, who shortly after the crash posted a now-viral video on social media showing passengers scrambling to get out of the damaged aircraft with the help of flight attendants as well as the chaotic scene on the tarmac as fire crews doused the flames emanating from the CRJ-900 aircraft, said he initially didn’t realize that anything was wrong until the moment the plane he was in slammed into the tarmac.

“Other people were saying they might have, I’m not really sure what, but for me, it was just kind of like the wheels touched down … and then all of a sudden I just remember being fully sideways, and I was looking down and just seeing like sparks and flames and whatever was grinding against the ground,” he said during an interview on NBC.

Koukov, who was seated in the window seat, previously told CNN that it felt like they were “upside down hanging like bats.”

He said he and the woman next to him “got out pretty quick” as they were able to unbuckle themselves and stand on the ceiling of the plane.

Koukov said initially the flight crew told passengers to stay put, but it wasn’t long before they were advised to get down and exit the aircraft.

“At that point, people were feeling pretty frantic and everyone was obviously able to get down. Most people needed help, I think, from someone who had already got down, and then we kind of just slowly moved off the plane,” he said of the “pretty organized” evacuation.

“It didn’t seem too insane once, like, the plane had stopped and everyone realized, for the most part, they were OK, because no one was seriously injured.”

Like others who survived the incident, Koukov said he, too, feels lucky to have made it out alive.

“I got to give the person I didn’t know sitting next to me a big hug, that we were OK, and see my friends who are here to pick me up from the airport and give them a big hug,” he told CNN.

With files from CNN, NBC, and CTV News’ Ryan White