CLEVELAND -- Passengers of a Delta express flight that skidded off a runway and crashed through a fence are expressing their anger concerning how they were treated by the airline after the ordeal.

Airport Commissioner | Passengers

The airline is refusing to call what happened during a Sunday night snow squall a crash, despite what federal officials said. NewsChannel5's Paul Kiska reported that several passengers contacted NewsChannel5 to say that they were treated poorly by Delta.

Passenger Jarrod Edge said the Delta supervisor talked fast, gave little information and did even less to console passengers traumatized by the accident.

"They didn't care and we had just been through the worst situation of our lives," he said.

Edge said there were no wheelchairs for the elderly and no offer of water for passengers.

When the supervisor talked, Edge started his recorder. He said the supervisor talked for a total of 45 seconds and not all of the passengers were in the room yet.

After taking 45 minutes to be helped off the plane by firefighters, Edge said he then felt like he was blown off by Delta and herded to baggage, where the luggage wasn't ready until the next day.

But an hour later there was still no baggage and no baggage that night. Another passenger told NewsChannel5 she found her luggage sitting out in the open the next day.

When NewsChannel5 contacted Delta to tell them passengers were upset about how they were treated after what airport officials called a crash, a representative said, "The plane landed and came to a stop at the end of the runway."

But the plane crashed through a fence, through antennas and slammed into a ditch, snapping off the nose gear, damaging the wing, engines and undercarriage, Kiska reported.

The supervisor did tell passengers to stay if they weren't feeling well. To sum up her 45-second talk, she said, "That's all. We don't want to hold you up. We know that it's been an upsetting afternoon and we certainly apologize."

"I give the firefighters an A plus, Delta an F, an F minus," Edge said.

After phone calls from NewsChannel5, Delta called back Tuesday to say they are now calling all passengers to apologize.

Delta also called what happened an "incident."

But the National Transportation Safety Board said it's classified as an accident because the plane sustained substantial damage when it skidded and crashed.

Meanwhile, the NTSB said it could release the preliminary cause of Sunday's plane crash at Hopkins International Airport within a week.

The Federal Aviation Administration also said Tuesday that pilots were notified a week ago that a guide slope device at Hopkins might not be working property because of recent heavy snow and added that it would not have caused Sunday's crash.