Latest news with #PeteKoukov
CNN
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
He was lucky enough to survive the Toronto plane crash. His experience as a skier helped him film it
Pete Koukov says that when his flight from Minneapolis was about to touch down in Toronto, everything seemed fine. And then just like that, he thought he was going to die. Koukov was one of the 80 people who walked away from the wreckage of February's Delta Flight 4819. It was his extraordinary video that revealed to the world just how devastating the crash had been and how lucky all the passengers were to survive. At least 244 million people on Instagram have watched the clip, watching him clamber out of the plane, stepping down onto the snowy runway and turning to reveal the inverted fuselage that had been shorn of both wings. 'Holy f**k!' he exclaims in the video, 'Oh my f**king God. Yo, I was just on this f**king plane!' As a professional content creator, Koukov said that the decision to film his experience came to him instinctively and, as a skier, it just so happens that he's very familiar with high-risk situations. 'I was almost the best person to be taking a video in that situation,' he told CNN Sports, apologizing for his choice of words heard on the video. 'Because we film each other all the time, you get really good at it when your hands are cold, you get pretty good at pulling (the camera) out quick. Although I was in a very stressful situation, it wasn't anything that I knew I wasn't able to do, and I knew this was an insane event in my life and I made sure there was a recording of it.' It was only when he saw the exterior of the plane that he felt as though he was safe. 'There were moments of 'Are we going to blow up? Is there going to be a fire?' Until I was off the plane, that's when it was like 'OK, I can breathe,'' he said. Koukov is no stranger to finding himself in tight spots or being upside down. His social media feed shows him street skiing, a niche genre that is best described as a cross between skateboarding, parkour and alpine sports. He skis over urban structures and through tiny gaps that are in his path. In 2023, he posted a video of him skiing down the steep side of a church building in South Dakota – he wrote that climbing up it was 'the scariest thing I'll ever do.' Those experiences have led him to be a sort of jack-of-all-trades when it comes to content creation. 'Skiing is such like a niche and it's so small that you kind of do – even if you're an athlete – you kind of do more than just being an athlete, whether it's filming, editing, producing, directing,' he told CNN. 'You kind of learn how to do it all, and it's always something I've really enjoyed and wanted to do more outside of skiing.' While he wouldn't quite describe himself as an adrenaline junkie, he admits that he's attracted to recreational risks – 'and that's what kind of makes it fun.' But now that he's starred in the ultimate adrenaline video, he can't quite reconcile his role in it. 'It almost feels like a separate world,' he explained, detailing his experience of watching another video of the crash-landing on the runway. 'I'll even see the side-view perspective and it's really hard for me to put myself (there) and be, like, 'I was actually on that plane.' 'It doesn't really translate. It doesn't really make sense to me. It was hard to believe while it was happening, and it's even hard to believe now.' Koukov was heading to Toronto on a one-way ticket to shoot content for the skiing magazine Browser, but a back injury sustained in the accident means he's been advised to stay off his skis for a while. He doesn't anticipate that the crash will change his approach to skiing or its inherent risks, but he admits that flying will never be the same again. 'I travel a lot for skiing,' he said, 'And I don't think I'll ever be able to feel the same again, that's for sure.' Because he couldn't ski in Toronto, Koukov made the decision to quickly return home to Denver, a decision that he believes made it easier to face his fears because it didn't leave him any time to let the experience sink in. 'If I had waited the original three weeks, I think maybe it would have been worse,' he said. But perhaps he's already equipped to cope with the mental trauma of his experience. Koukov has been embracing risky sports like skiing and mountain biking since he was young. 'It's a challenge to overcome something, that's why we do it. You land something you didn't necessarily think you could do, and nothing really beats that feeling. It's good to scare yourself!' he said. In 1898, the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote an oft-quoted line, 'Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.' Koukov told CNN Sports he hadn't heard the quote before, but after musing on it for a moment, he put the sentiment into his own words. 'It's a pretty neat feeling to feel like I should have died and didn't. I don't know if it's necessarily a good feeling or not. It's a grateful feeling,' he said. 'I'm not saying that the tricks I do on skis are deadly by any means, but there's always consequence, and I've always kind of gravitated towards the fact that there's consequence, and that's what makes it enjoyable.'
CNN
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CNN
He was lucky enough to survive the Toronto plane crash. His experience as a skier helped him film it
Pete Koukov says that when his flight from Minneapolis was about to touch down in Toronto, everything seemed fine. And then just like that, he thought he was going to die. Koukov was one of the 80 people who walked away from the wreckage of February's Delta Flight 4819. It was his extraordinary video that revealed to the world just how devastating the crash had been and how lucky all the passengers were to survive. At least 244 million people on Instagram have watched the clip, watching him clamber out of the plane, stepping down onto the snowy runway and turning to reveal the inverted fuselage that had been shorn of both wings. 'Holy f**k!' he exclaims in the video, 'Oh my f**king God. Yo, I was just on this f**king plane!' As a professional content creator, Koukov said that the decision to film his experience came to him instinctively and, as a skier, it just so happens that he's very familiar with high-risk situations. 'I was almost the best person to be taking a video in that situation,' he told CNN Sports, apologizing for his choice of words heard on the video. 'Because we film each other all the time, you get really good at it when your hands are cold, you get pretty good at pulling (the camera) out quick. Although I was in a very stressful situation, it wasn't anything that I knew I wasn't able to do, and I knew this was an insane event in my life and I made sure there was a recording of it.' It was only when he saw the exterior of the plane that he felt as though he was safe. 'There were moments of 'Are we going to blow up? Is there going to be a fire?' Until I was off the plane, that's when it was like 'OK, I can breathe,'' he said. Koukov is no stranger to finding himself in tight spots or being upside down. His social media feed shows him street skiing, a niche genre that is best described as a cross between skateboarding, parkour and alpine sports. He skis over urban structures and through tiny gaps that are in his path. In 2023, he posted a video of him skiing down the steep side of a church building in South Dakota – he wrote that climbing up it was 'the scariest thing I'll ever do.' Those experiences have led him to be a sort of jack-of-all-trades when it comes to content creation. 'Skiing is such like a niche and it's so small that you kind of do – even if you're an athlete – you kind of do more than just being an athlete, whether it's filming, editing, producing, directing,' he told CNN. 'You kind of learn how to do it all, and it's always something I've really enjoyed and wanted to do more outside of skiing.' While he wouldn't quite describe himself as an adrenaline junkie, he admits that he's attracted to recreational risks – 'and that's what kind of makes it fun.' But now that he's starred in the ultimate adrenaline video, he can't quite reconcile his role in it. 'It almost feels like a separate world,' he explained, detailing his experience of watching another video of the crash-landing on the runway. 'I'll even see the side-view perspective and it's really hard for me to put myself (there) and be, like, 'I was actually on that plane.' 'It doesn't really translate. It doesn't really make sense to me. It was hard to believe while it was happening, and it's even hard to believe now.' Koukov was heading to Toronto on a one-way ticket to shoot content for the skiing magazine Browser, but a back injury sustained in the accident means he's been advised to stay off his skis for a while. He doesn't anticipate that the crash will change his approach to skiing or its inherent risks, but he admits that flying will never be the same again. 'I travel a lot for skiing,' he said, 'And I don't think I'll ever be able to feel the same again, that's for sure.' Because he couldn't ski in Toronto, Koukov made the decision to quickly return home to Denver, a decision that he believes made it easier to face his fears because it didn't leave him any time to let the experience sink in. 'If I had waited the original three weeks, I think maybe it would have been worse,' he said. But perhaps he's already equipped to cope with the mental trauma of his experience. Koukov has been embracing risky sports like skiing and mountain biking since he was young. 'It's a challenge to overcome something, that's why we do it. You land something you didn't necessarily think you could do, and nothing really beats that feeling. It's good to scare yourself!' he said. In 1898, the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote an oft-quoted line, 'Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.' Koukov told CNN Sports he hadn't heard the quote before, but after musing on it for a moment, he put the sentiment into his own words. 'It's a pretty neat feeling to feel like I should have died and didn't. I don't know if it's necessarily a good feeling or not. It's a grateful feeling,' he said. 'I'm not saying that the tricks I do on skis are deadly by any means, but there's always consequence, and I've always kind of gravitated towards the fact that there's consequence, and that's what makes it enjoyable.'
Fox News
19-02-2025
- Fox News
Toronto plane crash survivors seen taking luggage amid emergency exit; travel experts weigh in
A Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis crashed and overturned while landing at Toronto Pearson Airport on Monday afternoon, leaving the plane belly-up. The Federal Aviation Administration said all 80 people on board were evacuated, with 19 treated for injuries, and three of them were taken to local hospitals with critical injuries, Fox News Digital reported. Crash landing survivor Pete Koukov joined "America's Newsroom" to discuss the harrowing ordeal. Koukov shared video on Instagram showing passengers quickly evacuating through emergency doors as water was sprayed to extinguish the plane. In the video, a flight attendant can be heard saying, "Leave everything. Drop it." Some passengers can be seen wearing backpacks with others carrying luggage off the aircraft. Gary Leff, a Texas-based travel industry expert and author of the blog "View From the Wing," told Fox News Digital that there are some consequences of gathering belongings during an emergency. "The problem is that slows down the process of getting out, and you don't know whether that is going to cost lives," said Leff. He added, "In the moment, though, passengers aren't thinking clearly about macro consequences. They may see just what is right in front of them." Leff noted that grabbing items that are needed, such as prescription medicine, may be a reason why. "This incident has fewer bags being taken than most because the plane's upside-down position [prevents] people from going into overhead bins for those belongings," Leff said. He said it is most likely only items near a passenger's seat were taken. Brandon Blewett, the Texas-based author of "How to Avoid Strangers on Airplanes," told Fox News Digital that in the event of an evacuation, he would defer to the flight crew for instruction. "I get that people are attached to their things, and maybe they knew there was no fire risk, but I'd always err on the side of getting out first and worrying about replacing lost material items later," said Blewett. In a YouTube video posted by Delta titled, "Safety Video March 2024," the airline shares instructions on what to do in case of an emergency. "In the event of an evacuation, leave all bags behind. Carrying baggage will slow the evacuation," an official says in the video. Fox News Digital reached out to Delta for further comment.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Passenger on flipped Delta jet recalls being upside down and 'hanging from our seat belts'
A passenger aboard the Delta flight that flipped upside down in a crash-landing in Toronto on Monday recalled how within seconds of the wheels touching down, his body was turned fully sideways and he and other passengers were left dangling by their seat belts. Pete Koukov recorded video of the moment he and other passengers were shuffled out through the emergency exit of the flipped plane onto the tarmac covered in patches of snow at Toronto Pearson International Airport. "I didn't really notice anything wrong until the moment we hit the ground," Koukov said on the "TODAY" show Tuesday morning. "The wheels touched down ... I was in the window seat on the lookers left side, and then all of a sudden, I just remember being fully sideways." "I was looking down and just seeing like sparks and flames and whatever was grinding against the ground. It happened pretty dang quick and we were just upside down, hanging from our seat belts," he recalled. Delta Air Lines said 21 injured passengers were initially transported to local hospitals, and as of Tuesday morning 19 have been released. There were no fatalities in the landing of Flight 4819, and the injuries were relatively minor, officials said. There were 80 people on the plane, 76 passengers and four crew members, Delta said. The flight was operated by Endeavor Air and had arrived from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport when it crashed upon landing in Toronto around 2:15 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said. Endeavor is a 'wholly owned subsidiary of Delta Air Lines headquartered in Minneapolis,' according to Delta. Koukov said that he and the other passengers on board were hanging upside down, secured only by their seat belts. 'Obviously we ended up upside down, and everyone was wearing their seat belts as they should have been, including myself,' Koukov said. 'I remember just hanging there and me and the lady next to me, we got out pretty quick. We were kind of able to just like, unclip, like you would, and then just kind of lower ourselves to be on the ground, which was the roof, I guess,' he added. 'We did it really quickly, like, within stopping we both immediately kind of got our bearings, unclipped, got down.' Passengers were only hanging for about a minute before they were told they could dismount. 'At that point, people were feeling pretty frantic, but everyone was obviously able to get down. Most people needed help, I think, from someone who had already got down, and then we kind of just slowly moved off the plane.' He commended the flight attendants for a 'pretty organized' evacuation of the plane. 'Everyone got off in a pretty orderly fashion. It didn't seem too insane once the plane had stopped and everyone realized, for the most part, they were OK because no one was seriously injured,' Koukov said. It's not clear what caused the crash, but at the time wind gusts reached close to 40 mph amid blowing snow and minus 2 degrees wind chill. While lake-effect snow impacted the area earlier in the day, no snow was reported on radars at the time of the accident. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will investigate the crash with assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pro Skier Pete Koukov Climbs Out of Delta Airlines Wreckage
A recent string of airline disasters has plagued the front pages of North American news sites since the New Year. Yesterday, February 17, 2025, disaster nearly struck again when a Delta Airlines flight tipped over as it landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport shortly before 3 p.m. local time. According to CNN, a strong gust of wind hit the plane just as it touched down causing it to roll over.80 passengers were on board, including professional skier Pete Koukov. Koukov filmed a dramatic video as he was hurried off the plane through a side door. As he emerges into the daylight on the snowy tarmac of Toronto, the terrifying scene Koukov's video below. Tap or click to play. Viewer discretion advised for strong language and distressing scenes. POWDER had reached out to Koukov for comment, but had not received a response at time of publishing. This article will be updated should Koukov accept our interview clip is going viral across the internet due to its inherently dramatic nature. The scene of the overturned plane as passengers evacuate and fire crews respond resembles a scene out of a movie, not real understandably, lets out some choice swear words as he reflects on what just happened. "Oh my f***ing god. I was just on this f***ing plane," he can be heard exclaiming world of freeskiing quickly came to show their support for Koukov in the comments. Phil Casabon, Alex Hall, Henrik Harlaut, Tom Wallisch, Hunter Hess, Jonah Williams, Jossi Wells, Cole Richardson, Addison Rafford and more posted comments of love expressing their gratitude that Koukov was who isn't as well known by the mainstream like some of the athletes that commented on his post, is often thrown into the category of 'Your Favorite Skier's Favorite Skier'.Why? You might ask? Just take a look at the clip below of him skiing a church roof in South Dakota. At the time, he described climbing to the top of the roof as, "the scariest thing I'll ever do."Tap or click to watch Koukov descend the roof. He might want to update that caption to say: "This one time i skied down a church in south dakota and climbing up it was the scariest thing ill ever (intentionally) do," after the overturned plane accident he survived here at POWDER is elated that Koukov and the 80 passengers aboard the flight are okay. CNN is reporting that 18 people were injured, but no deaths have occurred at this will continue to update this the first to read breaking ski news with POWDER. Subscribe to our newsletter and stay connected with the latest happenings in the world of skiing. From ski resort news to profiles of the world's best skiers, we are committed to keeping you informed.
