“Mass chaos” is how one Minnesotan aboard the Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis to Toronto described the immediate aftermath inside the jetliner that crash-landed Monday afternoon.
Twin Cities man spots himself in video helping others off Delta plane that crashed in Toronto
Ashley Zook, of Mound, posted a video from inside the plane of herself saying while dangling: “My plane crashed. I’m upside down.”
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 18, 2025 at 11:40PM
“I did notice the winds were super gusty,” 47-year-old John Nelson, of Bayport, told CNN in an on-air interview. “The snow had kinda blown over the runways. It was routine, but it was noticeable that the runways were in kind of a weird condition.”
As of Tuesday morning, of the 21 injured passengers that were taken to a nearby hospital, all but two have been released, according to Delta.
No fatalities have been reported as aviation agencies investigate what led to the crash of the CRJ-900 aircraft operated by Endeavor Air, a wholly owned regional subsidiary of Delta that is based in Minneapolis.
Delta Flight 4819 departed the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport shortly after 11:34 a.m., about an hour late, according to FlightAware.com. It crashed in Toronto at about 2:15 p.m. EST, according to Delta.
“When we hit, it was super hard,” Nelson continued. “We hit the ground and the plane went sideways, and I believe we skidded on our side and flipped over on our back.
“Where we ended up there was a big fireball on the left side of the plane. It was mass chaos.”
Everyone in the fuselage came to rest upside down, he told the network.
“We kind of let ourselves go and fell to hit the ceiling, which is a surreal thing,” he said. And then everybody was like, ‘Get out! Get out!’ We could smell the jet fuel. And then we just crawled out of the back of the airplane."
Also among the Minnesotans aboard was Michael Braunschweig, 52, of Shakopee, according to his employer, Twin Cities-based Starkey.
Braunschweig, in a statement released by his employer late Tuesday afternoon, said he was traveling with a colleague at the time, and “much to my surprise, I was captured on video helping people out of the plane. I am still processing this experience.”
Brandon Sawalich, president and CEO of the hearing aid maker, said in a statement, “I have known both valued team members for more than 30 years. ... In this unthinkable situation, they both showed remarkable resilience and strength. ... They, as well as their families, will have Starkey’s full support as they recover from this traumatic experience.”
James Zook said his sister, 32-year-old Ashley Zook, of Mound, was on the plane for a business trip to Toronto. He said his sister, who uploaded a video of the ordeal on Snapchat, had talked to her family and that she was doing fine.
Ashley Zook posted a video from inside the plane of herself saying while dangling, “My plane crashed. I’m upside down.”
Once out of the plane, her video captured the wreckage as flames flickered at one end. She gasped for breath once on the windswept runway and said, “I was just in a plane crash. Oh, my God.”
Her brother told the Minnesota Star Tribune, “I’m glad that my sister is all right, and I’m glad that the [other] passengers are also all right.”
Regional carriers such as Endeavor are separate entities that fly under the guise of a major airline. Endeavor, flying as Delta Connection, has its own work crews of pilots, flight attendants and maintenance.
Delta and other commercial airlines contract many of their smaller routes to regional carriers. Passengers may not realize they are flying on a regional airline as tickets, aircraft logos and cabin interiors all reflect the major carrier.
“This is how I’m going to die,” thought passenger.
