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There was little to suggest that passengers aboard an Air Canada flight landing in New York over the weekend would soon be recounting the most terrifying moments of their lives.

“I was hurt a little bit, and I’m honestly still a little shocked about everything that happened,” Air Canada passenger Jack Cabot said in an interview with CTV News Channel Wednesday.

Two pilots were killed after an Air Canada flight that was set to touch down at LaGuardia Airport collided with a fire truck on the runway Sunday night. The Air Canada flight had taken off from Montreal Trudeau International Airport.

Cabot, who sat in seat 18A — a row in front of the emergency exit — was one of the passengers who were able to exit earlier than others.

“I feel like I’m one of the lucky ones. It was just a very harrowing experience,” he added.

Cabot recalled it being a regular flight, but as the aircraft approached the runway, something shifted.

“We felt the brakes were hit really hard ... we all lurched forward in our seats,” he said. “And then all of a sudden, it was just this really loud bang.”

What followed was disorienting and immediate.

“Everybody’s head just basically hit the seat in front of them. And in that moment, it was chaos and panic. People were screaming, people were crying ... it was a scary couple of seconds.”

Inside the cabin, Cabot said, there was no clear sense of what was happening.

“The plane immediately felt like there was no one in control,” he said.

When the aircraft came to a halting stop, Cabot said instinct took over.

“You don’t really think when they tell you in the emergency row you’ll have to help out,” Cabot said. “But people did.”

Passengers were quick to open the exits and began evacuating onto the wing, he recounted.

“Once I got out of the plane, I really understood just how bad the damage was. I mean, I stepped down, I saw the entire nose of the plane just completely destroyed,” Cabot said.

The two pilots killed were identified as Antoine Forest from Coteau-du-Lac, Que., and Mackenzie Gunther, a 2023 alumnus of Seneca Polytechnic, a Toronto-based college.

“We all stepped out on the wing and then took a little jump, probably about four or five feet down onto the ground,” he said.

Cabot said he was grabbing bags and holding people’s hands as they were getting out.

A sense of community

“A lot of people were really hurt,” Cabot said, noting that those seated close to the front bore the brunt of the impact.

Still, amid the fear, a sense of shared humanity emerged.

“People were helping each other out ... I remember seeing someone with a COVID mask helping someone who had been bleeding,” he said. “People were holding each other as they were crying. There was this moment of community,” Cabot explained.

Passengers on the flight from Montreal have praised the pilots, saying they recalled the plane hitting the brakes suddenly upon landing, which they say likely ended up saving more lives.

“It was a high-impact plane crash, and they laid down their lives to save everybody else. It was a miracle that so many people were okay,” Cabot said.

In Cabot’s view the outcome could have been far worse.

“Had the truck hit the side of the wing or the fuel tank, every single person would have died.”

In the aftermath, Cabot said he was “very happy” to hear the voices of his families after the traumatic experience.

“That was a very touching moment for me,” he said.