Marshall man recounts harrowing tale of surviving Delta Flight 4819

A man from Marshall is grateful for the support of strangers and the local community after he survived Delta Connection Flight 4819 that crashed Monday while landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport.

John DeVos, 59, said he was in seat 9B that day, near the front of the CRJ-900 aircraft plane operated by Minneapolis-based Endeavor Air, a subsidiary of Delta Air Lines.

It was a routine flight for DeVos, president of animal nutrition for North America at the distribution business Barentz, which has offices in Woodbury and New Hamburg, Ontario.

The flight left Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport shortly after 11:34 a.m., about an hour late, according to FlightAware.com.

Passengers were informed upon descent that there were stiff winds and that there could be bumps along the way, DeVos said.

A frequent traveler, he was not worried and wasn’t thinking of recent aviation accidents.

The aircraft landed with a bump — one harder than usual, DeVos recalled. And then he could feel the plane start to slide. It then flipped over and began to skid down the runway.

DeVos remembers the screaming.

“The thought that went through my head was, ‘Well, this is how I’m going to die,’ ” he said.

And then the plane stopped moving.

DeVos said everything suddenly went quiet as the realization of what had happened spread among the 76 passengers. “All of us collectively were like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re alive,’ ” he said.

He also realized he was upside down. The plane had flipped.

Aviation experts, after reviewing footage, told the Minnesota Star Tribune it looked like a hard landing in which the right wing touched the ground and separated from the rest of the plane. While the plane skidded down the runway, its tail came off, its other wing appeared to strike the ground and flames rolled out.

Other passengers who have shared their harrowing memories recalled that moment of realizing they had survived as “surreal” and “mass chaos.”

DeVos said passengers helped one another escape the plane without pushing or panicking, but he added that he and others could smell jet fuel and wanted to get out as quickly as possible.

Once outside the plane, he saw emergency vehicles take away the injured.

By Thursday morning, all 21 passengers transported to the hospital with injuries had been released, Atlanta-based Delta stated. In a statement, Delta CEO Ed Bastian said the airlines' employees were grateful to see everyone head home.

“We will continue to connect one-on-one with customers, employees and loved ones as we move forward to make sure their needs are met with care,” Bastian said.

DeVos lost his phone in the crash, but another passenger helped him call home. On the other end of the line was his wife, Stephanie.

Stephanie DeVos, 50, said the day had already been a tough one for her, as she had attended the funeral of her best friend that morning. She didn’t pick up the call from an unknown number but got a text message shortly after.

When she got the message about her husband surviving a plane crash, she did not think it was real at first. And then she felt a rush of panic.

A few minutes later, she and her husband were able to speak. “It was a relief to hear his voice,” she recalled.

After the crash, DeVos was taken to a hotel in Toronto. Some survivors were carpooling back to Minnesota, but he decided to fly home to Marshall.

“It’s like, I’ve got to get back on a plane at some point, it might as well be right now,” DeVos said.

He also lost his keys in the crash, so a few neighbors drove his wife to the airport to retrieve his car and pick him up. Their reunion was “pure joy,” Stephanie DeVos said. “It was the best relief ever, the best feeling ever.”

What’s next is unknown, the couple said.

On Wednesday, Delta confirmed the company is offering a $30,000 “no strings attached” payment to each of the passengers on Flight 4819. The money is intended as a gesture and has no impact on passengers' rights to pursue litigation, according to the company.

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is leading the crash investigation. No clear cause has been released, and investigators have declined to offer theories or speculation.

Delta said its operations team is offering assistance to investigators in the form of technical expertise and whatever else may be needed. The wrecked airplane was removed from the runway late Wednesday, the airline said.

Some passengers on Flight 4819 have retained lawyers with Rochon Genova, the Canadian law firm said.

DeVos said he’s most impressed by how his fellow survivors and his Marshall neighbors looked out for him. He’s thankful for the stranger who let him call his wife and for the man who later found his phone.

His Marshall neighbors gave food to his family and provided emotional support for his teenage daughter at school, he said.

Someone even helped fix the family’s garage door.

“The most rewarding part of the process was just seeing everyone take care of each other,” DeVos said.