Air Canada flight AC8646's collision with a fire truck on a LaGuardia Airport runway late on Sunday killed the plane's two pilots, injured dozens of others, and left passengers and witnesses stunned and stranded.
We were literally like 100 metres away, said 23-year-old Leo Medina, who was onboard another plane on the tarmac when the crash happened. It was like the plane got cut in half. He told the BBC his plane then returned to the gate and that he had been waiting in the New York airport for more than 12 hours, sleeping on the floor on a bed of jackets.
In addition to killing the two pilots, the incident, which happened at 23:40 local time on Sunday (03:40 GMT on Monday), injured 41 people who were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries, and shut LaGuardia until Monday afternoon.
After visiting the crash site, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said he was reminded of the importance of wearing seat belts - on an aircraft or in any other mode of transportation. As you see from last night, they do save lives, Duffy said during a news conference.
Québec native Antoine Forest, 30, was identified as one of the Air Canada pilots who died in the collision, according to Canadian media reports. The other pilot has not yet been named. These were two young men at the start of their career, so it's an absolute tragedy, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator Bran Bedford said.
Passenger Rebecca Liquori, who was on the flight arriving from Montreal when it hit the truck, described a loud boom just after it landed. As we were descending, we hit a lot of turbulence, she recalled. Then we landed very roughly… Everyone felt it. It was like the plane jolted and you heard the pilot try to brake trying to prevent the collision.
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani described it as a tragic collision and said the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) - an independent federal agency - was investigating. NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy confirmed on Monday that it had begun an investigation, with its team arriving at the site shortly after 03:00 local time. The team is analyzing the plane's cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder, which were not damaged in the crash.
The crash caused travel chaos at LaGuardia - one of the busiest airports in the US - leaving hundreds of flights delayed or cancelled. It has been more than 34 years since LaGuardia had an incident with a death at the airport, officials said on Monday.
The crash comes during a tumultuous time in air travel as US airports have faced Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages, leading to long wait times for passengers. NTSB chairwoman Homendy emphasized the challenges her team faced during this investigation amid ongoing staff shortages.
