Both pilots of an Air Canada Express regional jet were killed when their aircraft collided with a Port Authority fire truck on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night, in a crash that injured dozens of passengers, shut down one of America’s busiest domestic airports, and disrupted travel across the entire Northeast corridor.
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Forty-one passengers and crew members were taken to hospital, with 32 released by Monday morning. Some of the remaining patients sustained serious injuries. More than 400 flights were cancelled and the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the airport closed until 2 p.m. Eastern time on Monday to allow for a thorough investigation.
Air Canada Express Flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation LP, was arriving from Montreal when it collided with a Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle on LaGuardia’s fourth runway late Sunday night.
The fire truck had been responding to a separate, unrelated incident on the runway when the incoming jet struck it, according to a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Kathryn Garcia, the Executive Director of the Port Authority, confirmed at an early morning news conference that both the pilot and co-pilot of the aircraft were killed in the collision.
A preliminary passenger list provided by Jazz Aviation indicated that Flight 8646 was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members at the time of the crash.
A New York Times journalist who arrived at LaGuardia shortly after midnight described a harrowing scene on the tarmac. Police vehicles and fire trucks surrounded the damaged Air Canada Express plane, which was white and had its nose completely sheared off from the impact. The Port Authority fire truck lay on its side nearby, severely damaged.
Medical personnel in white forensic coveralls arrived at the scene to photograph the wreckage and begin the investigation process.
Emergency crews from the New York Fire Department, Port Authority Police Department, and other agencies swarmed the runway as the full scale of the incident became clear.
The FAA issued an immediate ground stop at LaGuardia following the collision, and subsequently ordered the airport closed until 2 p.m. Monday.
LaGuardia is a critical hub for the busy Northeast corridor, handling nearly 900 departures and arrivals each day according to January data from the Port Authority. Air Canada operates approximately 23 of those daily flights.
The closure triggered cascading disruptions across the region’s travel system. More than 400 flights scheduled to arrive at or depart from LaGuardia were cancelled by early Monday morning, according to the flight-tracking website FlightRadar24.
New York City’s emergency alert system issued warnings of cancellations, road closures, and traffic delays around the airport in Queens, urging drivers to use alternate routes and avoid the area. The New York Police Department confirmed that all streets and highway exits into LaGuardia Airport were closed due to the emergency incident.
The crash came at a particularly difficult time for LaGuardia. Just one day earlier, travellers at the airport had endured hours-long security lines caused by a nationwide shortage of Transportation Security Administration workers, adding to delays at an airport already under significant operational strain.
The TSA crisis has been linked to a partial government shutdown that has resulted in thousands of TSA employees working without pay, reducing staffing levels at airports across the country and creating bottlenecks at security checkpoints.
The combination of the runway collision, the ongoing TSA staffing crisis, and the resulting closure of the airport created what officials described as an unprecedented convergence of disruptions at one of the nation’s most important domestic air travel hubs.
Air Canada said in a statement that it was “aware of an incident” involving Air Canada Express Flight 8646. Jazz Aviation, which operated the flight on behalf of Air Canada, confirmed the preliminary passenger and crew numbers and said it was cooperating fully with investigators.
The Port Authority said its police department was on the scene along with top agency officials and that the airport was closed in part to “allow for a thorough investigation.”
The New York Fire Department said it responded late Sunday to a reported incident on the airport’s fourth runway involving a plane and vehicle but referred further questions to the Port Authority.
Federal investigators are expected to examine several critical questions, including why the fire truck was on an active runway, what communication occurred between air traffic control and the emergency vehicle, whether the runway should have been closed while the fire truck was responding to the separate incident, and what the visibility and weather conditions were at the time of the collision.
The presence of a firefighting vehicle on the runway while an aircraft was on approach suggests a potential breakdown in runway management and communication protocols — issues that will be central to the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to lead the investigation, with the FAA providing support. Both the aircraft’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder will be critical to understanding the sequence of events leading to the collision.
The crash at LaGuardia comes during a period of heightened scrutiny over aviation safety in the United States. Observers have noted a series of aviation incidents under the current administration, raising questions about the impact of staffing shortages, budget constraints, and regulatory oversight on the safety of the nation’s air travel system.
The partial government shutdown that has affected TSA staffing has also raised concerns about its potential impact on other aviation safety functions, including air traffic control and aircraft maintenance oversight.
The airport is expected to reopen at 2 p.m. Monday, though significant delays and cancellations are anticipated to continue throughout the day as airlines work to recover from the disruption.
Passengers with flights scheduled at LaGuardia were advised to check with their airlines for updated information and to consider alternative travel arrangements. The two other major airports serving the New York City area — John F. Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport — remained operational, though increased demand from diverted LaGuardia passengers was expected to create additional congestion.
The investigation into the cause of the collision is expected to take months, with preliminary findings likely to be released within the coming weeks.
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