By Tali Arbel and Alison Sider
Pete Carlson took off from Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport Monday morning for a paramedics conference in Toronto. He had a window seat near the middle of the plane and a Yuval Noah Harari audiobook to listen to.
The descent was normal, said Carlson, a 40-year-old paramedic and vice president of acute response services at Lifespark, a health company focused on older adults. "Then once we landed, you know, it just went to s — ."
An hour and 39 minutes after takeoff, just before 2:15 p.m. Eastern, according to FlightAware data, Flight 4819 ended belly-up with a wing shorn off and smoke pouring out of the plane after crash-landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Carlson said there was a strong sideways shift upon landing. People were screaming. "The next thing I know, incredibly disoriented and upside down," Carlson said. He did a "head-to-toe assessment" of himself, looked down to make sure he wouldn't land on top of anyone, then unbuckled his seat belt. He dropped onto the ceiling of the plane, now below him.
He worked on reassuring a 4-year-old boy who said his belly hurt, showing him photos of his own young child to calm him, and pulled free a woman whose head and shoulders were under a seat. He worried about fuel igniting. The flight attendants helped passengers off as items tumbled from beneath the seats. "The ceiling is not designed to walk on. There was no ability to move," he said.
He estimated that it took just a few minutes for everyone to disembark. Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken said fire crews arrived quickly and put out the plane's fire. Most passengers "self-evacuated," Aitken said.
The Delta Air Lines regional flight was one of a number of high-profile plane crashes this year that have heightened U.S. fliers' anxieties and put a renewed focus on aviation safety.
The 80 passengers and crew aboard Flight 4819 all survived the ordeal. Of the 21 people from Flight 4819 taken to local hospitals, all but two were released by Tuesday morning, Delta said. By Thursday morning, all had been released. A local paramedics official said passengers suffered back sprains, head injuries, anxiety and nausea and vomiting from fuel exposure.
Delta's $30,000 offer
Delta is offering each passenger $30,000 that "has no strings attached," a spokesman said. He declined to comment further on compensation. Carlson said Delta also offered 70,000 miles and gold status for 12 months. "We have 15 days to accept or decline that money," he said.
A U.S. task force on how best to assist aviation crash survivors and victims' families recommended in 1997 that airlines consider making lump-sum payments following accidents.
Asiana Airlines in 2013, for example, offered $10,000 to survivors of a San Francisco plane crash that killed three people on board. US Airways sent passengers $5,000 after the 2009 emergency landing on the Hudson River that became known as the "Miracle on the Hudson."
Delta's international contract of carriage on its website says that in cases of bodily injury or death, it will make an advance payment when necessary to meet the economic needs and hardship suffered by a passenger.
"These initial payments are standard following airline accidents because people involved in previous crashes recommended them," said Russell Goutierez, who consults on emergency-response issues and managed support for accident victims at American Airlines in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Passengers can still sue Delta. A passenger lawsuit filed this week in federal court in Georgia said Marthinus Lourens suffered injuries and mental anguish because of the crash. The complaint said Lourens was drenched in jet fuel as the plane rolled upside-down and was hurt after he unbuckled his seat belt and dropped to the ceiling of the aircraft. He asked for unspecified damages of more than $200,000. Delta declined to comment.
The aftermath of the crash
Carlson said the passengers bonded in the hours after the crash, and he exchanged numbers with some. But the aftermath has been hard, said the resident of Northfield, Minn., which is near Minneapolis.
He rallied his emotions to give a presentation at the paramedics conference. His suit coat reeked of fuel. Having to fly back home Thursday morning scared him, and he expected more help from Delta on how to deal with the emotional difficulty of getting back on a plane.
"There's been no attempt at acknowledging the depth and the severity of the situation," he said. "It's just been very like, 'we will try and reunite you with your luggage.' "
The airline said its primary focus was taking care of its customers and employees, including helping passengers with hotels, meals and other personal needs and creating a phone service for relatives of the passengers to call. Returning the personal belongings left on the plane could take weeks.
The wreck of the plane, a Bombardier CRJ-900, was removed from the runway at the Toronto airport on Wednesday evening. Canada's Transportation Safety Board and other agencies are investigating what caused the crash.
Shortly after the crash, airport officials said the runway was dry, there were no crosswind conditions and described Monday as a clear day following several storms that had dumped more than 20 inches of snow. However, Canada's weather service said there was blowing snow and wind gusts of up to 40 miles an hour Monday around the time of the crash. An air-traffic controller had advised the plane of wind from the west with gusts of 33 knots, or about 38 mph, according to an audio feed.
"Professional pilots deal with that level of crosswind fairly regularly, " said John Cox, a safety consultant and former airline pilot. "It takes skill, don't get me wrong, but pilots develop that skill."
Write to Tali Arbel at tali.arbel@wsj.com and Alison Sider at alison.sider@wsj.com
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