The moment 80 lives were upended – literally – and tragedy was averted during the fiery crash of a Delta flight in Toronto

Minutes before touching down at Toronto Pearson International Airport after relatively uneventful trip from Minneapolis, Delta Flight 4819 was cleared for landing on runway 23 under a westerly wind with gusts of about 38 miles per hour.

In the 10th row of Delta Flight 4819, Pete Carlson rested in the window seat just before landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday afternoon, thinking about friends he would see at a paramedics conference where he was scheduled to speak. John Nelson, another passenger in the 10th row of the CRJ900 twin-jet aircraft, remembered the flight and descent over Canada’s largest city as typical except for “super gusty” winds blowing snow over the runways. “It was routine,” he told CNN. The Delta flight, on a trip from Minneapolis, was cleared for Runway 23 under a westerly wind, with gusts up to 38 miles per hour. “Might be a slight bump in the glide path,” an air traffic controller said. “There will be an aircraft in front of you.” “Clear to land, Endeavor 4819,” the pilot responded, referring to Delta’s Endeavor Air, the subsidiary which operated the regional jet arriving about 2:15 p.m local time Monday on the snow-covered runway. The wind sent snow swirling into the air, limiting visibility to five miles. Then everything changed.