Pilot and Co-Pilot Killed After Air Canada Jet Crashes Into Fire Truck
The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada Express flight have died after their aircraft collided with a fire truck on a runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night, injuring dozens of others and forcing the airport to close.
The crash happened at around 11:40pm local time on Sunday as Flight AC8646, operated by Jazz Aviation on behalf of Air Canada, was landing on Runway 4 after departing Montreal just over an hour earlier. The CRJ-900 regional jet struck the fire and rescue vehicle at what flight tracking service Flightradar24 recorded as approximately 130 miles per hour in the moments before impact, crushing the front nose of the aircraft. Both Canadian-based pilots were killed. The two firefighters aboard the truck were also injured and were hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard the flight. By Monday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said 32 of the 41 people hospitalised had been discharged, with nine remaining with serious injuries.
The fire truck had been crossing the runway to respond to a separate incident after a United Airlines pilot had reported "an issue with odour" aboard their aircraft. In radio transmissions from the moments before the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard giving a vehicle clearance to cross part of the tarmac before frantically trying to reverse the instruction. "Stop, Truck 1. Stop," the controller says, before attempting to divert the incoming Air Canada flight from landing. Video posted to social media showed the jet's nose severely damaged, with emergency vehicles surrounding it on the runway.
The National Transportation Safety Board has dispatched a team to investigate. LaGuardia was closed to allow for the response and investigation, with arriving aircraft diverted to other airports. The FAA issued a ground stop for all departures to the airport, with the airport’s closure potentially lasting until Monday evening. New York's Emergency Management urged people to avoid the area and "use alternate routes."
LaGuardia, which served 33.5 million passengers in 2024, had already been experiencing disruptions due to bad weather over the weekend.
