MARSHALL — A Marshall resident was one of the 80 people on board a Delta Air Lines jet that flipped upside down while landing in Toronto on Monday.

John DeVos said he was feeling “pretty lucky and pretty blessed” to have gotten through the crash.

“Once we rolled, I thought we were done,” DeVos said.

The flight traveling from Minneapolis to Toronto’s Pearson Airport was carrying 76 passengers and four crew, the Associated Press reported. On Monday afternoon when the plane was landing, winds in Toronto were gusting to 40 miles per hour.

All people on board the plane survived the crash. The Associated Press reported that more than 20 passengers were injured, but by Tuesday all but two of the injured people had been released from the hospital.

The trip from Minnesota to Toronto was one that DeVos makes pretty frequently. DeVos is president of North American animal nutrition at Barentz, a company that distributes life science ingredients. DeVos said part of his job is managing an office in the city of New Hamburg, Ontario. Monday was a holiday in Canada, and DeVos was flying up to make sure he was in the office on Tuesday.

As the flight approached the Toronto airport, things seemed routine, DeVos said.

“When we were making our initial descent, the captain came on and notified us that there were strong winds in Toronto, and the landing could be bumpy,” DeVos said.

DeVos was sitting in an aisle seat, so he couldn’t really see outside as the plane came in for a landing.

“All of a sudden we hit (the ground), and we hit very hard,” he said.

DeVos said he expected the plane to bounce, and for the pilot to regain control. But then the plane started to tilt.

“We got into crash position as best we could,” he said.

A wing came off the fuselage, and the jet rolled over on its top before skidding to a stop.

“We were all upside down,” he said.

One by one, the people sitting in DeVos’ row of the plane got their seat belts unbuckled. Passengers and crew started to exit the plane.

“It was a very orderly process,” he said. “Everybody on the plane did a great job.”

DeVos said there was a delay in getting people out of his section of the plane because there was jet fuel pouring down over the windows near the emergency exit. But the people in the exit row were able to get the emergency door open, and passengers got out onto the tarmac.

“We kind of walked down the tarmac as far as we could to get away from the plane,” DeVos said. It was very cold, and passengers temporarily gathered behind a fire truck to get out of the wind, he said. Injured people were put onto emergency vehicles, and the rest of the passengers were put on buses.

“We sat on the buses for probably 90 minutes,” DeVos said.

DeVos borrowed a cell phone from another passenger to call his wife, and let her know he was safe. He had lost his own phone in the crash, and there wasn’t time to look for it.

DeVos said he also remembered the smell of jet fuel that had dripped onto passengers as they got out of the plane.

The buses drove passengers to a gate area at the airport. “The whole time, there’s paramedics with us,” as well as police and other emergency responders, DeVos said. “They did a really nice job.” At the gate, there was water and even some Tim Horton’s doughnuts waiting for passengers, he said.

“For going through what we did, it was very calm,” DeVos said.

Another passenger had actually found DeVos’ cell phone on the plane. Having his own phone back made it a lot easier for him to contact family and co-workers, and let them know he was all right.

Responders did a count of all the passengers, and took an inventory of the belongings people had on the plane. Passengers were taken to an airport hotel, and DeVos said a person from work came to pick him up.

“I have some great employees in Ontario,” DeVos said.

They were able to get DeVos essentials like a coat and a change of clothes. All he had with him after leaving the crashed plane were the clothes he was wearing, his passport, his wallet, and his phone.

After the plane crash, DeVos said he was cutting his business trip short. The weather forecast in Toronto still didn’t look great, so he was driving to Detroit to get on a flight to Minneapolis. He said his wife would meet him for the drive back to Marshall.

DeVos said he was bruised from his seatbelt, but was otherwise doing well. There were a lot of factors that helped protect people on the plane.

“At least in my area (of the plane), everyone was buckled in. The seats stayed attached,” he said. “The fuselage staying together saved us.”

DeVos said he had only seen video of the plane crash on Tuesday morning. He hadn’t realized how much black smoke and fire was coming from the jet as it skidded to a stop.

“We knew we were pretty lucky. But then you see it and it’s like, wow,” DeVos said.

DeVos said he felt blessed to have gotten through the crash.

“Not many people get to tell the story of walking away from a commercial plane crash,” he said.