A flight to a Toronto paramedics conference becomes a real emergency for a former EMT [Video]

TORONTO, ONT – Former paramedic Peter Carlson is still having difficulty putting into perspective the shuddering jolt he and 79 others aboard Delta Air Lines flight 4819 experienced earlier this week.

One moment, the 40-year-old was looking forward to arriving in Toronto where he was speaking at an Ontario paramedic chiefs convention. The next, he was hanging — strapped only by his seatbelt — looking down at the airplane’s ceiling, attempting to assess the chaos around him.

As blood flowed from a gash on the back of Carlson’s head, he noticed other injured passengers, including one pinned beneath a seat behind him. There was an overwhelming smell of jet fuel as it streamed down the window next to his seat by the plane’s right wing which was sheared off during Monday’s crash landing at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.

“It was a forceful impact, a sideways movement and suddenly just inverted,” Carlson told The Associated Press on …