Karim Marzouk was preparing for a "routine" landing early Sunday morning aboard Air Canada Flight AC624 in Halifax when things took a terrifying turn for the worse.

The Halifax resident, who was returning from a work trip with his wife, looked out the window as the plane touched down shortly after 12:30 a.m. local time, and instantly knew something was awry.

"You could see sparks coming from the left wing … then suddenly there was a second much heavier impact – more of a slam or crashing into the ground," Marzouk recalled in an interview with CTV Atlantic Sunday.

"Very quickly ... the lights turned off in the plane, the emergency mask came down and we were being flung around and the pilot was screaming overhead: 'Keep your head down. Keep your head down.”

Marzouk didn’t know it at the time, but the Airbus A320 had touched down 335 metres short of the tarmac, taking down an antenna array and sliding on its belly onto the runway.

Terrified, Marzouk thought, "this was it" as he waited "for the plane to crack open."

"I caught myself looking up to the ceiling of the plane waiting to see the sky," Marzouk said.

When the aircraft came to a stop, Marzouk said that he didn't wait for any instruction: he instinctively flung open the plane's emergency door, and made his escape with his wife.

"As soon as we got off the plane we could see and smell liquid, which I thought was fuel leaking from the plane, and at that point you're thinking the worst, so myself and my wife we just made a run for it," Marzouk said.

The runway was dark and flurries made it difficult to see, but Marzouk said that he plane was on its belly.

Dominic Stettler of Wolfville, N.S, told The Canadian Press that passengers onboard the plane were quick to react.

"We just kicked the doors out and jumped onto the wing and then ran because we just wanted to get away from the airplane in case of explosions or anything."

During the flight, Marzouk said that everything seemed "normal," when the pilot announced that the plane was in a holding pattern and waiting for a safe opportunity to land.

Stettler said that the flight crew told passengers that if weather conditions weren't safe for landing they would circle the airport for an hour. If things didn't improve, the plan was to head to Moncton, N.B., he added.

About 30 minutes later, the aircraft descended toward the Stanfield Airport runway.

"There was a window of visibility and we went for it," said Stettler.

"I actually didn't know we (were) on the runway. I thought we might be on a field and that at any point we could run into a tree or some obstacle. While we were sliding, I just thought about my boys and my family."

After escaping the plane, Stettler also ran through the scattered debris to safety.

"I tripped over a big metal object, which must have been one of the components," Stettler said. "It was just completely surreal.”

'You're looking at your life go before you'

Doug Tamlyn was also among the passengers on the flight.

He said he knew something was wrong when he gazed out the window as the plane attempted to land.

"All of a sudden there's a flash of light and a loud cracking noise, we obviously hit something … and then we slammed into the earth and slid a thousand feet or so," he told CTV's Canada AM.

"Everything just went blurry; everybody was hitting their face in the seats in front of them. You're looking at your life go before you."

Tamlyn said, once the plane came to a stop, the cabin almost immediately filled with the smell of "smoky rubber," which made him think there was possibly a fire on the aircraft.

Passenger Mike Magnus said the fact that the plane skidded along a snow-covered runway likely prevented a fire from spreading through the aircraft.

"Once we hit I knew we were in trouble because at the end of the day… the snow and the storm and the crosswinds certainly caused the crash, but at the same time I think the snow actually saved us," he said.

"As we were skidding along, there was none of the friction that would've created sparks."

Magnus said he was quick to leave the plane via the emergency chute, but remained at the site to help others off the plane.

"You ask yourself what are you going to do in (a situation) like that," he said. "I guess adrenaline kicks in, and you make the better decision to help people."

Passengers forced to wait 50 minutes on runway

Peter Spurway, a spokesman for the Halifax airport, said that passengers and crew evacuated the plane "within 60 seconds."

Many of them had left the plane in such a rush that they were standing in socks on the snow-covered airfield.

But there were reports that passengers were forced to wait on the runway up to 50 minutes before being shuttled away.

Air Canada says passengers and crew were taken to hospital with minor injuries, and all were released Sunday.

Spurway said they plan to review the incident.

"We do feel badly about the passengers who were out on the airfield arguably longer than they really needed to be," said Spurway.

The Transport Safety Board of Canada said at a news conference on Sunday afternoon that they’re probing the cause of the runway crash.

TSB invsestigator Mike Cunningham told reporters that despite the passengers' ordeal, it could have been much worse.

“They touched down 1,100 feet short of the runway, so I’d say they’re pretty lucky,” Cunningham said.

With a report from CTV Atlantic and files from The Canadian Press