What should have been a routine landing turned into a tragedy within seconds at LaGuardia Airport.
Late Sunday night, an Air Canada regional jet collided with a firefighting vehicle on the runway, killing two pilots and sending dozens to hospital.
The aircraft, a CRJ-900 operated by Jazz Aviation, had just landed from Montreal when the accident occurred around 11:40pm.
So what went wrong? Officials say the fire engine was responding to another aircraft that had reported a strange odour.
The jet and the emergency vehicle crossed paths on the tarmac.
Moments before the crash, tense audio from the control tower captured someone shouting: “Truck One, stop, stop, stop!”
Collision Investigated
The impact was severe. Forty-one people were taken to hospital, though most were later discharged.
Two officers inside the fire vehicle survived and are now in stable condition.
Eyewitness Leo Medina described the shocking moment: “We were about 100 meters away. It looked like the plane got cut in half.”
The collision has forced the shutdown of LaGuardia.
Disrupting hundreds of flights from airlines including Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and American Airlines.
New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani called it a “tragic collision,” as investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board begin their probe.
In aviation, safety systems are built in layers. Yet sometimes, even on the ground, tragedy can slip through the smallest gap.
