Passengers React After Plane Skids Off LaGuardia Airport Runway

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Passengers are recalling the tense moments aboard Delta Flight 1086 as it skidded and crashed through a fence during landing at LaGuardia Airport Thursday morning.

In the moments before the plane slammed into the fence, passengers described it wobbling and leaning side to side as it skidded forward, CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported.

There were 127 passengers and five crew members on the plane and all were evacuated safely, authorities said. Twenty-four people suffered non-life threatening injuries and three people were taken to the hospital, according to the FDNY.

Many passengers were relieved it wasn't worse.

"It was crazy, but thank God I'm here," one passenger told CBS2. "Once we got off the plane I could tell it was a little more serious than I thought it was."

The passenger said as he was getting off the plane he saw gas coming out of the left wing. He credits the flight attendants for the swift evacuation.

"We're sliding down the wing and they're like, 'Hurry up, hurry up,'" the passenger said. "The flight attendants, they did a pretty good job of getting us off there and once we got off, the plane was right there on the bank."

"It's either you can come off the plane way too upset about like the landing, or you can be grateful that you didn't get in the water and get wet," Ishmael Lateef told reporters, including CBS2's Rincon.

"It felt like a usual hard landing, then all of a sudden the brakes felt like they kind of locked up and then they released and we stared skidding off the runway, we ended up against the fence," passenger Bo Kramer told WCBS 880's Peter Haskell.

"It was nerve-wracking," passenger Margaret Laney said. "The plane came down and it slid and then it took a spin to the left and we looked out the window and we could see the wing was hitting a fence somewhere. And then it just was tumbley and the plane came to a stop."

Photos and video from the scene showed the aircraft resting in the snow with its nose through a fence near the water and some passengers feared they were going to have start swimming.

"I was in the window seat and we saw the plane hitting the gate, approaching the water very quickly," one passenger said. "(What do you think when you see this?) Get ready to swim, time to get ready to swim. It's survival mode."

"We thought that we were in the water, everybody thought it was in the water and then they opened the back door and all the snow and things fell out and then the firemen came around helping everybody," another passenger said.

As CBS2's Jessica Schneider reported, passenger Mark Klafter knew the weather conditions were dicey for the flight.

He even texted a friend of his before takeoff: "All that weight should help when we skid off the runway at LGA."

"Part of my text was, 'They're saying it's a really full flight, so that extra weight should really come in handy for skidding off the runway.'" Klafter said. "I don't think I have Nostradamus-like powers or anything like that, and I don't think I was the cause of the incident. But in hindsight, it was a little freaky."

And of course, it was shocking when Klafter's remark came to pass as reality.

"There was that moment, I'm thinking back in my head, was like, boy, I hope we stop before we hit the water," he said.

Some passengers took to social media shortly after the incident.

A couple of celebrities were also aboard the plane.

Giants tight end Larry Donnell posted this photo to Instagram:

He also posted a video, with a caption that read: "Look at this s---! Knew I shoulda stayed my a-- at home."

Jaime Primak, star of the Bravo reality show "Jersey Belle," tweeted that she was on the plane, too.

Norah O'Donnell, co-host of "CBS This Morning," who was on another plane trying to leave LaGuardia, suddenly found herself covering a major story.

And other passengers posted photos and videos as well.

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In:
• Peter Haskell
• Sonia Rincon
• LaGuardia Airport
• Delta Air Lines