Updated ,first published
New York: The pilot and co-pilot of an Air Canada Express regional flight with 76 people on board were killed after it collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday (New York time), US authorities and media said.
The Air Canada Express CRJ-900, operated by its regional partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew from Montreal, Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Jazz is owned by Chorus Aviation.
According to flight tracker Flight Radar 24, flight AC8646 took off from Montreal and landed at LaGuardia at 11.37pm US time (2.37pm AEDT). The plane was traveling at a speed of about 39 kilometers per hour when it hit a fire truck that was crossing the runway.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said 32 of the 41 injured have been released, while nine remain hospitalized with “serious injuries.”
The fire truck was crossing Fourth Avenue to respond to a separate incident aboard a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported an “odor problem,” said Garcia, who deferred additional questions about the sequence of events leading to the NTSB crash.
Minutes earlier, air traffic control (ATC) audio from LiveATC.net indicated that a United Airlines flight had declared an emergency due to a foul odor. Controllers advised the crew that fire engines were already on the scene.
The second route then shows the fire truck was allowed to cross the fourth street, where the collision occurred, on the taxiway ‘Delta.’
Moments later, according to the ATC voice, the controller can be heard saying: “Stop, stop, stop, truck one stop, truck one, stop.”
Two Port Authority employees traveling in a fire truck suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.
The airport was to remain closed until at least 2 p.m. Monday (New York time) to facilitate the investigation, led by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Photos and video from the scene showed extensive damage to the front of the plane, with cables and debris hanging from the twisted cockpit. Nearby, a broken-down ambulance lay on its side. The stairs used to remove passengers from the plane were pushed to the emergency exits of the plane, a Bombardier CRJ. The impact left the plane with its crumpled nose tilted up.
The pilot and co-pilot were both from Canada, Garcia said during a press conference.
Two unnamed passengers told local media about the shock of the late-night accident, with one describing his friend’s broken nose and passengers hitting their heads on the seat in front of them.
According to CNN, LaGuardia warned in advance about flight disruptions due to the weather, including light rain and fog in the area.
The Federal Aviation Administration said the airport was expected to remain closed until 2 p.m. (New York time). Flightradar24 said 18 flights were diverted to other airports, mainly in the New York area, or returned to their point of origin.
Air Canada referred Reuters to Jazz’s statement and said it was aware of the incident. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The incident continues a series of accidents that made last year one of the deadliest in the past decade for aviation. In November, a UPS cargo plane crashed and exploded shortly after taking off from Louisville, Kentucky.
The crash of an Air India Boeing 787 in June, seconds after takeoff, he killed all but one of the 242 people on board the plane. In January 2025, American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with a military helicopter near Washington in one of the worst US air disasters in decades, killing 67.
LaGuardia was the 19th busiest in 2024 out of more than 500 US airports, with more than 16.7 million passengers boarding there, according to the 2025 FAA database.
AP, Reuters, Bloomberg
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