NEW YORK (AP) — An Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others, officials said.
The impact severed the cockpit, and hurled a flight attendant — still secured to her seat — far from the site of the crash, her daughter told a Canadian TV station. The flight attendant survived.
The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane reporting an odor onboard. Before , an air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop.
Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appears to blame himself. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier,†the controller said. “I messed up.â€
About 40 passengers and crew members on the , and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.
A key for investigators will be examining coordination of the airport’s air traffic and ground traffic at the time of the crash, said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation Inspector General. “This has been happening for years and sadly some of the most horrific air crashes in history happen on the ground at the airport.â€
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said LaGuardia is “well-staffed†but still faces a shortage of air traffic controllers. He said there are currently 33 certified controllers but the goal is to have 37. More than one controller was on duty at the time of the accident, he said.
“I can’t give specifics on what went wrong,†Duffy said, deferring to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. Canada also sent a team of investigators.
The crash shut down LaGuardia — the New York region’s third busiest hub — during what was already a because of a partial government shutdown.
Flights resumed Monday afternoon with just one of two runways open and lengthy delays. The shutdown was causing some disruptions at other airports, too, especially for Delta, which has a major presence at LaGuardia.
Passenger says they helped each other escape the plane
The collision left cables and debris dangling from the mangled cockpit. Images showed the fire truck flipped onto its side, with most of the damage to its back half.
Flight attendant Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures to one leg and will need surgery after being thrown from the plane, daughter Sarah Lépine .
Her survival is “a total miracle,†Lépine said. “I’m still trying to understand how all this happened, but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her,†Lépine told the station.
Passenger Rebecca Liquori said the plane hit turbulence while descending, and she then felt it brake hard and heard a loud boom.
“Everybody just jolted out of their seats. People hit their heads. People were bleeding,†Liquori told , a station where she once worked.
Liquori, who said she helped open the emergency exit door, recalled passengers helping each other slide down a wing to get out.
“I’m just happy to be alive,†said Liquori, who had gone to Montreal for a cousin’s baby shower. “I would have never pictured a one-hour flight that I’ve done countless times … ending like this.â€
U.S. and Canada sending investigators to New York
The pilot and copilot who died were both based out of Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.
President Donald Trump called it a “terrible†situation. “They made a mistake,†he told reporters. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement the accident was “deeply saddening.â€
The fire truck was traveling across the runway to respond to a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odor,†said Garcia.
Two Port Authority employees in the fire truck suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, Garcia said.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard the Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada, according to the airline. The flight originated at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
Hours after the crash, the plane remained on the runway with its crumpled nose tilted upward.
LaGuardia has a system to spot runway encounters
The air traffic controller tried to warn the fire truck.
“Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop,†the transmission says. “Stop, Truck 1.†The controller can then be heard frantically diverting an incoming aircraft from landing.
Air traffic controllers are not impacted by the partial government shutdown that has caused in recent days. They have been affected by past shutdowns.
The FAA has been chronically short on air traffic controllers for years. But former FAA air traffic control chief Mike McCormick said that LaGuardia is “not a control tower that has perennial staffing problems.â€
At the time of this crash, however, the tower would have been lightly staffed during the overnight shift, he said.
LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system designed to help keep track of planes and vehicles crossing the airport.
An alarm heard in the background of the air traffic control audio was likely from the system and would have prompted all eyes in the tower to look for the potential collision, McCormick said.
“It’s an aid in a situation like this,†he said, but the system doesn’t know if someone has given clearance for a vehicle to cross a runway.
show there were 1,636 runway incursions last year.
LaGuardia was the 19th busiest U.S. airport in 2024, with over 16.7 million passengers boarding there, according to .
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The story has been updated to correct that the Port Authority video on trucks was put out last year, not last month.
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Associated Press reporters Michael R. Sisak, Anthony Izaguirre and Mae Anderson in New York; Rob Gillies in Toronto; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.
