Kim O’Connell was about to board a Delta regional flight from Minneapolis to Toronto on Monday when he decided to change his plans and take a later flight. Normally, he wouldn’t alter his travel schedule, but since he had the day off and the airline was offering $500 to passengers willing to take a delayed flight, he agreed to wait.
Later that afternoon, while in the air, O’Connell connected to Wi-Fi and started receiving messages from coworkers asking if he was okay. He soon found out that the flight he was supposed to board had crashed in Toronto.
“My heart just sank,” O’Connell, 29, told USA TODAY. “I thought I was going to vomit.”
At that point, it was still unknown whether anyone had survived the crash. O’Connell stood up and informed the two other passengers who had also volunteered for the later flight. One of them began crying, and the other took O’Connell’s hand, saying, “It’s going to be okay, brother.”
Their plane landed in Detroit that night, and O’Connell is now staying with family in Michigan. He plans to return to Minneapolis on Wednesday.
Though O’Connell narrowly escaped the crash, such close calls can still leave lasting emotional effects. He is among several passengers whose travel plans coincided with the tragic incident, leaving them deeply shaken.
“Feeling Helpless: ‘There’s Pretty Much Nothing I Can Do'”
On Monday, Sarah Purser and her 9-year-old son were on a flight descending toward Toronto Pearson Airport when the Delta plane crashed on a nearby runway.
Purser said she could feel the aircraft start to climb again before the pilot announced that the airport was closed and they would be rerouted to Montreal. “We knew something serious had happened, but we didn’t know the full extent,” she explained.
As they flew away from Toronto, Purser and the other passengers quickly turned to their phones to find out more about the incident. They soon came across images of the overturned plane, with one of its wings torn off as passengers exited the cabin.
“It’s hard to believe,” Purser, 45, said. “What’s even more unbelievable is that everyone made it out alive.”
The plane stayed in Montreal for hours before finally landing in Toronto around 10:30 p.m., making their flight from Los Angeles over 12 hours long. Since then, Purser has been trying to catch a flight to Quebec City to visit her mother in the hospital but feels helpless. “I’m dying to get there, but there’s pretty much nothing I can do,” she said.
“It Could Have Been Your Flight”
Dr. Michaela Renee Jonnson, a licensed psychotherapist and commercial pilot, explained that close calls like this can lead to near-miss or survivor’s guilt. While not exactly the same as survivor’s guilt, it can cause travelers to question their choices, wondering what might have happened if they had done things differently. Experiencing or witnessing such events can trigger a fight, flight, or freeze response, potentially leading to acute stress disorder within six months or post-traumatic stress disorder after that.
Hasna Nizamuddin was waiting to fly home from Toronto when she heard about the crash. As she saw emergency lights from a distance, stress set in. Her flight was canceled after a ground stop, and she had already been at the airport for nearly 24 hours due to a missed connection. She was left scrambling for alternate arrangements and felt stuck when additional flights were canceled.
Dr. Jonnson advised talking to someone outside the situation, like a friend or mental health provider, to gain perspective and consider re-evaluating travel priorities. She also noted that travel, especially by plane, remains safer than most other daily activities like driving.
For O’Connell, the emotional impact was intense. “I’m shaken up,” he said, but was thankful everyone on the flight was safe.
“Turbulent Emotions: How a Near-Miss in the Sky Can Lead to Guilt and Flight Anxiety”
“Delta Plane Crashes and Flips Over at Toronto Airport”
