Christina Kurylo was one of 71 people, including four crew, on board Flight 8481 from Calgary on Thursday evening, which was forced to make an emergency landing.
Ms Kurylo was sitting in a window seat as the plane hit the runway, resulting in the right-side propeller snapping off and becoming lodged in the fuselage.
The plane, a twin-engine Bombardier Q400, had left Calgary bound for Grande Prairie, Alta, around 348 miles away, according to Canadian newspaper The Globe.
“All of the sudden, something came crashing through the window and I got hit in the head,” Ms Kurylo said in an interview following the incident. “I’m lucky it wasn’t worse,” she added, while crediting the passenger sitting beside her with helping her get off the plane.
As the plane took off, “all of the sudden there was a big bang,” Melissa Menard, one of Ms Kurylo’s friends, told The Globe.
The captain announced that they had blown a tire and would try to land in Edmonton, she added, where the emergency services were waiting for the plane on the runway.
The landing initially seemed to be going smoothly until passengers heard “a lot of rattling” as they touched down on the runway. The right landing gear then collapsed and sparks flew as the right undercarriage dragged along the tarmac.
The propeller then smashed into Ms Kurylo’s window, knocking off her glasses and covering her in pieces of broken plexiglass.
The smashed window is shown (Photo: AP)
After the plane stopped, a moment’s silence was broken by cheers and whistles from passengers who then had to hurry out of the cabin as it filled with smoke.
Ms Kurylo was helped out by her seatmate as she heard someone shout “get off the plane, it’s on fire”, The Globe reported.
She was treated by paramedics for bruising and concussion. One showed her a photograph of the propeller jammed into the window as evidence of her lucky escape. “That propeller was inches away from killing someone,” Ms Menard told reporters.
Ms Kurylo was taken to hospital where she was discharged after six hours having suffered a concussion, sore neck and bruises on her head and shoulders.
Manon Stuart, a spokeswoman for Jazz Aviation, which operates the flight for Air Canada, said four passengers were sent to hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
Bombardier, the plane manufacturer, has experienced landing gear failures on planes operated by Scandinavian Airlines in the past, but Transport Canada records show that the plane in this incident, a DHC-8-402 model, was manufactured in 2012, so relatively new.
“At this point, there is no reason to question the safety of the Q400 aircraft. The cause of this incident is still unknown,” Ms Stuart said.
Both Ms Stuart and Marianella de la Barrera, a spokeswoman for Bombardier, said the Q400 is considered a robust, reliable aircraft