Deadly plane collision at LaGuardia Airport: What we know.
- The San Juan Daily Star
- 4 hours ago
- 3 min read
By ALI WATKINS and CHRISTINE HAUSER
An Air Canada regional jet collided with a fire truck on a runway as the plane was landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York City late Sunday, killing two people and injuring dozens more.
Here’s what we know.
What happened?
The fire truck, a Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle, was responding to an unrelated incident when it crossed a runway into the jet’s path, colliding with it in a cloud of smoke and debris around 11:40 p.m. Sunday, officials said.
The plane, a CRJ-900 jet, was being operated as Air Canada Express Flight 8646 by Jazz Aviation, a regional carrier in Canada, and had flown from Montreal with 72 passengers and four crew members aboard. Images show the plane’s nose mostly sheared off from the impact of the crash, and an overturned fire rescue truck nearby.
The plane’s ground speed was around 132 knots (151 mph) when it landed, and it slowed sharply, as is normal, to 21 knots (24 mph) less than a minute later, according to FlightRadar24, an online flight-tracking service.
A recording of air traffic control communications at the time, posted on the LiveATC website, appeared to capture the moments leading up to the crash.
In the recordings, a person in the truck requests and receives permission to cross a runway before an air traffic control operator tells the vehicle several times to stop. “Stop, Truck 1, stop!” the controller can be heard saying.
Who were the victims?
The pilot and co-pilot were killed, and dozens of others were injured, including two officers in the truck, officials said.
Forty-one others were taken to the hospital after the crash, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns and operates LaGuardia Airport. Thirty-two of those people had been released as of early Monday, but some others were seriously injured.
The accident is being investigated by the National Transportation and Safety Board, which had a team at LaGuardia by around 3:30 a.m., Garcia said.
A flight attendant was ejected from the plane.
Rebecca Liquori, 35, who was sitting on the left side of the plane by an emergency exit, said the plane made “a huge noise” as the pilots braked in an attempt to avoid the crash. “I’ve never heard it before,” she said. “It was like a grinding.”
“A few seconds after that, you hear the collision and we just got jolted,” Liquori said. “We got thrown forward. And everybody’s screaming.”
A flight attendant, Solange Tremblay, was ejected from the plane while still strapped into her seat, her daughter, Sarah Lépine, told TVA Nouvelles, a Quebec broadcaster. Lépine said that one of Tremblay’s legs was broken and would require surgery.
Liquori said the pilots were heroes.
“They did everything they can to save us and they didn’t save themselves and they couldn’t save themselves,” she said.
How will this affect air travel?
Officials ordered a ground stop at LaGuardia early Monday as emergency vehicles swarmed the damaged jet.
The airport was closed until 2 p.m., halting traffic at one of the country’s key regional hubs. The first flight since the crash took off at 2:08 p.m., as operations restarted. But officials said travelers should expect residual delays and cancellations and should check with their carriers before leaving for the airport.
One of three major airports in the New York City area, LaGuardia is a central hub for regional and domestic travel in the Northeast, with nearly 900 arrivals and departures per day.
More than 400 flights to and from the airport Monday were canceled by the morning, adding to travel strife at U.S. airports caused by the partial government shutdown. The brunt of the disruption from Sunday’s crash is likely to fall on regional and domestic travelers, as LaGuardia restricts nonstop flights to within 1,500 miles.
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