John Nelson of Bayport isn’t sure when he’ll feel like flying again.
John Nelson of Bayport, Minn., in a “TORONTO” sweatshirt that Delta Air Lines bought for him, en route back home to Minnesota via Delta ground transportation on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. The Delta flight Nelson was on crash landed in Toronto on Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. (Courtesy of John Nelson)
After the Delta flight he was on crash landed in Toronto on Monday, Nelson and a co-worker from Andersen Corp. decided to take the long way home. For the approximate 900-mile journey, a Delta employee drove them to Chicago on Tuesday, and then the airline arranged for a car service to take them the rest of the way home to Minnesota on Wednesday.
“I fly a lot for work, but I’ve canceled my next two trips,” said Nelson, 47, who was en route to the Andersen factory in Strathroy, Ont., when the crash occurred. “I’m going to take a few weeks and not do this anymore.”
Nelson, who is married and has two children, said Tuesday night that he wasn’t sure how his family will feel about making a long-awaited trip to Hawaii for spring break next month.
“We love to travel as a family, so that’s actually the hardest part about this whole thing,” he said. “We’re supposed to go in 28 days. Getting on a plane, I don’t know. I don’t want them to not love travel. I’m hoping we get to go, but we have some decisions to make as a family.”
Aboard Delta Flight 4819
Nelson, one of the 80 people on board Delta Flight 4819 from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, said he paid special attention to the outside conditions at Toronto Pearson Airport.
“I had never been to Toronto for work before, so I was very in the moment, watching out the window because I was interested in where I was going,” he said. “What I noticed was when we were coming into the airport, we were sort of shifting around a little bit, which it’s not a big airplane, so that’s not terribly uncommon, but I did notice how snow-swept the runways were. There was a lot of snow on the runway that had blown across, like blizzard-like conditions.”
When the plane, a Bombardier CRJ-900, crashed onto the runway, it made such a loud “metal-on-concrete” sound that Nelson’s Apple Watch’s “loud-noise warning” notifications began going off. The watch can detect a sound level that is considered potentially damaging to the wearer’s hearing.
“Have you ever been in a car accident and heard that metal on metal?” Nelson said. “It was like that, but times ten. I’ve been on so many planes, and I’ve hit and bounced and swirled and kind of kept going. This was like a hit, a bounce and like, all of a sudden, something was clearly not right because we started the tip to the right side. It just happened so quickly.
“I remember hitting,” he said. “I remember thinking, ‘Don’t hit your head. Whatever you do, don’t hit your head. If you hit your head, that’s when bad things happen.’ I just remember trying to hold myself steady. And then I could see – and feel – the whole plane just starting to tilt.”
The next thing he knew, he – and everyone else on board – were hanging upside down. “Everybody’s dangling there, which is just a testament to safety seatbelts,” he said. “I was on the left side of the plane, and I remember there being, like, a big fireball out the window. I could feel the heat through the window. There was the moment – it probably only lasted a couple seconds, but we were all, like, ‘Holy crap, did that just happen?’ and then it’s like, ‘Get out! Get out! Get out!’ All I know is, I just wanted to stay alive.”
When Nelson, who was sitting in Seat 7C, unfastened his seat belt, he crashed down onto the plane’s overhead compartment, he said. “I’m actually bruised up and down my back because I fell and I ended up with my legs in the air, and my back on what would be the overhead compartments,” he said.
‘Leave your stuff, get off the plane’
Because the descent had been so rocky, Nelson said he had his cellphone in his hand to call his family right away. As soon as he was upright, he called his daughter Grace, who was home from school because of Presidents Day; son Zack, 12, also was home, he said. His wife, Amanda, works at Westfields Hospital in New Richmond, Wis., and would not have been able to pick up because she was with patients, he said.
“I’m not saying it was the best decision, but I called my 15-year-old daughter. She’s like, ‘Hi, Dad,’ and I said, ‘You need to call your mom. I was in an airplane accident.’ She’s like, ‘What???’ I probably will come back to regret that as a parenting decision at some point.”
After that 15-second conversation, Nelson said he worked to help the woman next to him, who was stuck in her seatbelt. “She’s like, ‘I lost my glasses, I lost my phone,’” he said. “Everybody had lost everything at this point. It was just mass chaos. Everybody was upside down, but I have to say that everybody was remarkably calm amongst the chaos that was around us.”
Nelson said the flight attendants jumped into action and told everyone to leave their belongings and evacuate immediately. “They were like, ‘Leave your stuff, get off the plane. Leave your stuff, get off the plane,’” he said. “They were very clear and very direct. I was able to grab my backpack, which had been under the seat in front of me.”
The woman next to Nelson actually had been told by a flight attendant prior to landing that she had to put her bag under the seat in front of her. “She said, ‘It doesn’t fit,’ and the flight attendant said, ‘Ma’am, you have to put your bag under your seat. I’ll help you. Give me your coat. I’ll put it in the overhead bin, but everything’s got to be underneath there.’”
When the woman questioned why, the flight attendant responded: “Because if we’re in an emergency situation, I need to have the aisles clear so you can get out.”
“Truer words were never said, right?” he said. “We’re sitting there upside down, and I’m, like, ‘Well, thank God her bag didn’t fall on top of me.’”
As he and other passengers left the plane, he said they grabbed cellphones and whatever else they could find in order to return the items to their owners.
A survivor’s advice
Nelson said he has two pieces of advice for airplane travelers: Listen to the flight attendants, and keep your ID on your person.
“I know flight attendants can be boring, but listen to them,” he said. “They truly have our safety in mind. I spent seven hours with a Delta person who drove me across international lines today, and they want us to get home safe.”
Nelson said he was lucky he could get to his backpack, where his passport was stored.
“Keep some identification around you, like, really close,” he said. “There are people who struggled with having passports or having anything. The government, both Canadian and American, were taking care of them to make sure they had all of their paperwork, and they were going to get home. But always just have your stuff with you. You never know, you know what I mean?”
Nelson said he is not sure when his carry-on bag – full of “four days’ worth of Andersen gear” – will be returned to him. Delta officials told him on Tuesday that the Federal Aviation Administration would be the agency to release it.
“They’re going to try to recover whatever’s left,” he said. “They’re going to try to decontaminate it and try to get it to us within a month, but they basically said it’s going to be covered in jet fuel, and it’s going to stink.”
A spokeswoman for Andersen confirmed on Wednesday that the employees who were on the flight are back in Minnesota.
“Our thoughts are with everyone involved in the terrible accident,” said Aliki Vrohidis, the company’s public relations manager. “We are grateful to the first responders who were at the scene and appreciate the outpouring of compassion and support to those impacted.”
Delta’s response
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Delta confirmed to the Associated Press that it has offered each passenger on the flight $30,000 and and is “telling customers this gesture has no strings attached and does not affect rights.”
What’s the key to surviving a plane crash? Skilled crew, strong seats and wings that detach
Bayport man describes ‘mass chaos’ of Delta plane crash in Toronto
Questions emerge about what may have caused Delta plane to burst into flames and flip over
What to know about the airplane that crashed while landing at Toronto’s airport
New video shows Delta plane crash landing at Toronto airport
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Nelson says that Delta provided clothing and whatever else was needed, but the selection was limited because Monday was a federal holiday in Canada (Family Day) and everything was closed. He thinks the Toronto Maple Leafs shirt he wore on Tuesday and the blue Toronto sweatshirt he wore on Wednesday came from a gift shop at the airport.
“It’s, like, the most Canada thing ever, but Delta has done as much as they possibly can,” he said. “You know, everybody got off. Everybody did everything they could have, and it worked out, and everybody was safe. I don’t know how. It’s a miracle, but it’s a miracle because people work together.”
