A Jazz Aviation flight arriving from Montreal struck a Port Authority rescue vehicle on Runway 4 just before midnight, killing both pilots and sending dozens to the hospital.
An Air Canada Express flight landed at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night and collided with a Port Authority fire truck that had been cleared to cross the runway it was approaching. The pilot and co-pilot were killed. More than 40 passengers and crew were taken to hospitals. Two Port Authority police officers in the truck suffered broken bones but were expected to survive.
The collision happened at approximately 11:40 p.m. Sunday on Runway 4 at the Queens airport. Flight AC8646, operated by Jazz Aviation on behalf of Air Canada, had departed Montreal Trudeau International Airport shortly after 10:30 p.m. and arrived at LaGuardia roughly an hour later. According to flight tracking data from FlightRadar24, the aircraft was traveling at approximately 130 miles per hour in the moments just before impact.
What set the collision in motion
The fire truck was not parked on the runway. It was responding to a separate emergency on the other side of the airport when the fatal sequence began.
A United Airlines flight had aborted its takeoff after a warning light activated and pilots reported an odor in the cabin that had made flight attendants ill. Air traffic controllers granted the Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle permission to cross Runway 4 to reach the United plane. The Air Canada Express flight was in the process of landing on the same runway at that moment.
Audio from air traffic control captured the seconds before impact. A controller issued an urgent series of stop commands to the truck before immediately notifying the Air Canada flight that a collision had occurred and that emergency vehicles were already on the way.
The Port Authority confirmed the fire truck had been cleared and was actively responding to the United aircraft when it was struck. The exact sequence of how the clearance and the approaching flight overlapped is central to the investigation now underway.
Injuries and the airport response
Of the 72 passengers and four crew members on board the Air Canada flight, 41 were transported to hospitals. Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia said at an early today news conference that 32 of those had since been released. Those still being treated were taken to Elmhurst Hospital and Queens Presbyterian Hospital. One unaccompanied minor was among the passengers and was directed to Air Canada’s ticket counter to be reunited with family.
Photos and video from the scene showed severe damage to the nose of the aircraft and water across the tarmac from rain that had fallen throughout the evening. Visibility at the time of the collision was approximately three miles, with rain and mist still coming down. Whether weather conditions contributed to the collision had not been determined.
LaGuardia was placed under a full ground stop immediately following the incident and remained closed through at least 2 p.m. Today to allow investigators access to the runway and the aircraft. All streets and highway exits into the airport were closed until further notice.
Investigations launched and what comes next
Both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed they were investigating. The NTSB said it was deploying a team expected to arrive today. Neither agency offered preliminary findings in early statements.
The cause of the collision remained unclear as of this morning. Investigators will examine the sequence of air traffic control clearances, the position and speed of the fire truck at the time it entered the runway and whether any procedural failures contributed to the overlap with the landing aircraft.
Ripple effects across airports
The closure of LaGuardia through this afternoon sent cancellations across multiple regional airports. Flights scheduled out of Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport were among those affected, with early morning departures to LaGuardia called off across all three. Travelers were directed to check flight status through their respective airport websites.
The collision also arrived against a broader backdrop of airport disruption across the country. TSA funding has lapsed amid ongoing congressional inaction, leaving officers working without pay and pushing call-out rates to levels that created hours-long security lines at the nation’s busiest airports over the weekend.
LaGuardia was already contending with weather-related delays before the collision added a far more serious complication to a difficult night for air travel in New York.
Story credit: CNN