It was a harrowing ride for hundreds of straphangers aboard the derailed A train. The cars plunged into darkness and then filled with smoke. NY1's Clodagh McGowan spoke to some of the passengers.

Kelly Kopp's Tuesday morning commute was anything but routine.

"The lights go off, people are screaming and all of a sudden there's all this smoke, I'm thinking I need to get off this train," subway rider Kelly Kopp said.

The Washington Heights resident was sitting in the second-to-last car of the downtown A train when he heard a massive bang -- the sound of two forward cars derailing and slamming into a wall.

Kopp, a photographer, captured images of a fellow passenger trying to kick out a window.

"He kicks it like 10 times and I'm thinking it's not coming off either,” she recalled.

The glass soon popped out. They briefly exited the car, some of the hundreds of riders who ended up on the tracks.

About 800 people were aboard the train. Riders described a frightening noise, a sudden jolt, darkness and confusion.

"If you can't open up the doors and start getting smoke in the car, you feel trapped in there. I think that's what freaked people out a bit," Steve Epstein, a straphanger said.

Gregory Reardon was on his way to work from his home in Hudson Heights when he said all hell broke loose. 

"Seemed like forever probably was only 10 to 12 seconds, but it was like when is this going to stop? You didn't know what was coming next because you didn't know what was happening. Were we attacked? People are screaming people are crying. Even when it stopped you were like is this over?” Reardon said.

Once it became clear the danger had passed and no one was seriously hurt, Reardon said a calm set in, bolstered by the conduct of MTA personnel.

Reardon said he walked off the train and did not think twice about taking an uptown 1 train home. But he has a message for city and state officials, saying "take responsibility, stop finger pointing. We need to fix this. It's people's lives."