An Air Canada plane collided with an emergency vehicle on the runway at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport in the late hours of Sunday night, killing two pilots and injuring dozens of people, including a flight attendant thrown from the plane while still strapped to her seat.
Emergency vehicles flooded the runway and passengers inched out onto the wing of the aircraft in the aftermath of the crash.
“It was just chaos in there,” said Jack Cabot, one of 72 passengers aboard the flight traveling from Montreal. “Everybody was hunkered down and everybody was screaming pretty quickly.”
Both Canadian and American authorities are investigating the collision, which follows several high-profile aviation disasters in 2025 — including a shocking midair collision between a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Washington, DC, which left 67 dead — that brought scrutiny to the industry and triggered calls for reform.
The crash marks the first deaths at LaGuardia, the New York area’s third-busiest airport, in 34 years, Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia said Monday.
Sunday night’s collision brought operations at the airport – a major transit hub that served over 32 million passengers last year – screeching to a halt before it reopened Monday afternoon. Hundreds of flights have been cancelled at the airport, and runway 4 will remain closed until 7 a.m. Friday, according to a public notice from the FAA.
The closure came as a Department of Homeland Security funding shutdown has led to TSA staffing shortages and massive lines at airports across the country, with some passengers reporting hours spent waiting to go through security.
There’s no evidence the shutdown contributed to the collision; air traffic controllers, unlike TSA agents, are still paid during this partial shutdown.
Here’s what we know about the collision.
Plane struck fire truck on runway
Just three minutes elapsed between when the Air Canada flight was cleared to land and when it collided with the fire truck.
Air Canada Flight 8646 took off from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport shortly after 10:30 p.m. ET Sunday night. The plane, with four crew members, arrived at LaGuardia about an hour later, according to the flight tracking site FlightRadar24. It was cleared to land at around 11:35 p.m.
On the other side of the airport, another plane had already reported an emergency.
United Flight 2384, scheduled to depart for Chicago, aborted its takeoff due to a warning light at around 11:18 p.m. As controllers worked to find a gate for that plane, the pilots reported an odor in the cabin had sickened the flight attendants, according to a LiveATC.com recording of air traffic control audio.
A Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle dispatched to respond to the United flight requested permission to cross the runway where the Air Canada aircraft was landing.
Just 10 seconds after granting permission for the fire truck to cross, the controller seemed to reverse course and told it to stop, the audio indicates.
“Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop, truck 1. Stop,” he said.
The collision took place about 11:38 p.m., just three minutes after the Air Canada flight was cleared to land. The controller can then be heard directing other aircraft to abort their landings and “go around,” noting the runway is now closed.
The Air Canada plane was traveling about 104 miles per hour just before it hit the fire truck, according to the last data point collected before the collision by Flightradar24.
Video footage and air traffic control audio are helping to piece together a rough timeline of the events that led up to the fatal incident.
- 11:17 p.m. ET – United 2384 cleared for takeoff.
- 11:18 p.m. ET – United 2384 aborts takeoff.
- 11:20 p.m. ET – United 2384 says it is heading back to gate, notes an odor and requests firefighters.
- 11:31 p.m. ET – United 2384 declares emergency due to odor.
- Approximately 11:35 p.m. ET – Air Canada Flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, is cleared to land on runway 4.
- 11:36 p.m. ET – Fire truck 1 requests permission to cross the runway at the intersecting taxiway. “Truck one and company, LaGuardia Tower, requesting to cross 4 at Delta,” the fire truck radios the tower.
- 11:36 p.m. ET – Controller grants permission for the fire truck to cross. “Truck one and company, cross 4 at Delta,” the tower responds.
- 11:37 p.m. ET – About 10 seconds later, the controller urgently says, “Stop, stop, stop truck one, stop. Stop, stop…. Stop truck one, stop.”
- 11:37 p.m. ET – Air Canada plane touches down.
- Approximately 11:38 p.m. ET – Collision occurs.
- 11:38 p.m. ET – Controller issues first “go around” to tell incoming planes to abort their landings and circle the airport.
Chaos and fear on board
Inside the plane, there was chaos as the flight landed and collided with the truck.
“We went down for a regular landing; we came in pretty hard. We immediately hit something,” said Cabot, one of the passengers aboard the Air Canada flight.
Another passenger, Rebecca Liquori, described a “very loud boom” as the plane struck the vehicle.
“Everybody just jolted out of their seats,” Liquori, who had taken a one-day trip to Canada for a baby shower, recalled. “People hit their heads, people were bleeding.”
Both Liquori and Cabot said without any direction from crew members, passengers decided on their own to open the emergency exit and flee the plane.
Video captured by Cabot shows passengers standing on the wing of the aircraft as they exit the plane.
At one point, the aircraft can be seen slowly tilting upward as debris hangs from its front.
“All passengers come this way, come this way,” someone can be heard saying on a loudspeaker.
‘I messed up,’ controller says in audio recording
Eighteen minutes after the plane collided with the fire truck, the air traffic controller in the tower appeared to say to a pilot on the ground radio frequency: “I messed up.”
The exchange took place with a Frontier Airlines pilot waiting to return to the gate who saw the crash.
“That, that wasn’t good to watch,” the pilot said in audio recorded by LiveATC.net.
“Yeah, I know. I tried to reach out to them,” the noticeably distraught controller said. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.”
The pilot responded, “nah man, you did the best you could.”
The air traffic communications will be a part of the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board’s extensive investigation into the cause of the crash. Determining the root cause of an accident can take a year or longer and often involves multiple contributing factors.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the labor union representing controllers, did not provide comment when reached by CNN.
Pilot and copilot killed
The Air Line Pilots Association called the deaths of the pilot and copilot a “profound tragedy” in a statement.
“These pilots dedicated their careers to the safe transport of passengers, and we are all thinking of their families, loved ones, and colleagues at Jazz Aviation during this devastating time,” Capt. Jason Ambrosi, ALPA president, said in the statement.
The union said its accident investigation team is heading to assist the NTSB and is providing support to pilots and families involved.
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said the pilots were “young men at the start of their careers” at a news conference Monday.
One of the pilots has been identified as Antoine Forest. A family member, Jeannette Gagnier, confirmed to the Toronto Star on Monday that the Coteau-du-Lac native was one of the pilots killed in the crash.
Dozens injured
More than 43 people were hospitalized and “many” have since been released, according to Garcia, the head of the Port Authority.
In a video released Monday afternoon, Air Canada’s CEO said the final number of casualties remains unclear.
“We are working with authorities to confirm the number of injuries and if there are any other fatalities,” Air Canada President and CEO Michael Rousseau said.
The two firefighters in the truck, identified Monday as Sgt. Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez were both hospitalized, Garcia said, adding that one was expected to be released Monday afternoon, while the other would be kept overnight for observation.
Other Port Authority firefighters witnessed the crash and quickly began “evacuating the passengers, securing their safety while not knowing if their fellow officers in Truck 1 were dead or alive,” the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association said in a statement.