{"id":676487,"date":"2026-03-23T17:46:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:46:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/676487\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T17:46:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T17:46:15","slug":"new-yorks-laguardia-airport-closes-after-crash-on-runway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/676487\/","title":{"rendered":"New York’s LaGuardia Airport closes after crash on runway"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 An Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck<\/a> while landing at New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others, officials said.<\/p>\n

The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane reporting an odor onboard. Before the collision<\/a>, an air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop.<\/p>\n

Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appears to blame himself. \u201cWe were dealing with an emergency earlier,\u201d the controller said. \u201cI messed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal<\/a>, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n AP AUDIO: Jet collides with fire truck at New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport. 2 pilots killed\n <\/p>\n

AP correspondent Julie Walker reports on a deadly crash at LaGuardia airport in New York City Sunday night.<\/p>\n

The impact crushed the plane\u2019s nose, leaving cables and debris dangling from the mangled cockpit. Images from the crash site showed the fire truck flipped onto its side, with most of the damage to its back half.<\/p>\n

A key for investigators will be examining coordination of the airport\u2019s air traffic and ground traffic at the time of the crash, said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation Inspector General. \u201cI don\u2019t know how many wake-up calls the (Federal Aviation Administration) needs, but this has been happening for years and sadly some of the most horrific air crashes in history happen on the ground at the airport.\u201d<\/p>\n

The crash shut down LaGuardia \u2014 the New York region\u2019s third busiest hub \u2014 until at least Monday afternoon, during what was already a messy time at U.S. airports<\/a> because of a partial government shutdown.<\/p>\n

More than 600 flights had been canceled at LaGuardia by midday, according to FlightAware.com. The shutdown was causing some disruptions at other airports, too, especially for Delta, which has a major presence at LaGuardia.<\/p>\n

Passenger says they helped each other escape the plane <\/p>\n

Passenger Rebecca Liquori said the plane hit turbulence while descending, and she then felt it brake hard and heard a loud boom.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody just jolted out of their seats. People hit their heads. People were bleeding,\u201d Liquori told News12 Long Island<\/a>, a station where she once worked.<\/p>\n

Liquori, who said she helped open the emergency exit door, recalled passengers helping each other slide down a wing to get out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just happy to be alive,\u201d said Liquori, who had gone to Montreal for a cousin\u2019s baby shower. \u201cI would have never pictured a one-hour flight that I\u2019ve done countless times \u2026 ending like this.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. and Canada sending investigators to New York<\/p>\n

The pilot and copilot who died were both based out of Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport. <\/p>\n

The airport will remain closed until at least early Monday afternoon during the investigation, which is being led by the National Transportation Safety Board. Canada also sent a team of investigators. <\/p>\n

President Donald Trump called it a \u201cterrible\u201d situation. \u201cThey made a mistake,\u201d he told reporters. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement the accident was \u201cdeeply saddening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fire truck was traveling across the runway to respond to a separate incident aboard a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported \u201can issue with odor,\u201d said Garcia.<\/p>\n

Two Port Authority employees in the fire truck suffered injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening, Garcia said.<\/p>\n

There were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard the Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada, according to the airline. The flight originated at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.<\/p>\n

Hours after the crash, the plane remained on the runway with its crumpled nose tilted upward.<\/p>\n

LaGuardia one of few airports with system spot runway encounters <\/p>\n

The air traffic controller tried to warn the fire truck.<\/p>\n

\u201cStop, stop, stop, Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop,\u201d the transmission says. \u201cStop, Truck 1.\u201d The controller can then be heard frantically diverting an incoming aircraft from landing.<\/p>\n

Air traffic controllers are not impacted by the partial government shutdown that has caused long delays at airport security checkpoints<\/a> in recent days. They have been affected by past shutdowns.<\/p>\n

The FAA has been chronically short on air traffic controllers for years. But former FAA air traffic control chief Mike McCormick said that LaGuardia is \u201cnot a control tower that has perennial staffing problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the time of this crash, however, the tower would have been lightly staffed during the overnight shift, he said. <\/p>\n

LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system designed to help keep track of planes and vehicles crossing the airport.<\/p>\n

An alarm heard in the background of the air traffic control audio was likely from the system and would have prompted all eyes in the tower to look for the potential collision, McCormick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an aid in a situation like this,\u201d he said, but the system doesn\u2019t know if someone has given clearance for a vehicle to cross a runway.<\/p>\n

FAA statistics<\/a> show there were 1,636 runway incursions last year.<\/p>\n

LaGuardia was the 19th busiest U.S. airport in 2024, with over 16.7 million passengers boarding there, according to a 2025 FAA database<\/a>.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

The story has been updated to correct that the Port Authority video on trucks was put out last year, not last month.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press reporters Michael R. Sisak, Anthony Izaguirre and Mae Anderson in New York; Rob Gillies in Toronto; Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 An Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":676488,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[166,20577,5229,12167,64,69,12104,4216,57,284990,18809,285123,285121,33464,401,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,285122,1164,61,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,107],"class_list":["post-676487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-aerospace-and-defense-industry","tag-air-canada","tag-america","tag-aviation-safety","tag-business","tag-donald-trump","tag-federal-aviation-administration","tag-fires","tag-general-news","tag-kathryn-garcia","tag-mark-carney","tag-mary-schiavo","tag-mike-mccormick","tag-montreal","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-rebecca-liquori","tag-travel","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116279744382395579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676487\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}