CLEVELAND -- Delta Airlines has never admitted what happened Sunday at Cleveland Hopkins Airport was a crash, saying only that the plane landed and came to a stop.

But now the airline has confessed it mishandled passenger complaints after the incident and said it is sorry, reported NewsChannel5's Paul Kiska.

Airport Commissioner On Crash Investigation | Passengers Get Scare During Landing

An hour after Delta Express Jet 6448 crashed through a fence at Hopkins, Billy Forester found out what happened to his wife's plane.

"I found out from baggage it went off the runway, so for that I'm (expletive) off," he said.

Soon other upset passengers like Jarrod Edge called NewsChannel5. Edge recorded a Delta supervisor who gave a 45-second speech after the crash with little compassion, according to Edge.

On Wednesday, Delta called NewsChannel5 from its Atlanta headquarters, admitting that the customer relations process started too late.

"However, in this case we should have started soon as possible," said spokesman Kent Landers.

Landers used the word "apologize" half a dozen times in a five-minute phone call, Kiska reported.

"The follow-up process began Monday but not quickly enough, and we apologize for that," Landers said.

Delta said it's proud of how they treated passengers during past incidents.

"However, in this case the process started too late and we're apologizing to our customers and we're now reaching out to them," Lander said.

But passengers still want to know why the plane landed in whiteout conditions.

"We crashed and the sun came out. We couldn't have flown around before we landed?" Edge said.

After NewsChannel5 contacted Delta, the airline is now giving passengers $350 vouchers, calling each passenger to apologize and writing each of them a letter of apology.