Two people were killed after an Air Canada plane from Montreal collided with an aircraft rescue-and-firefighting vehicle while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night, forcing the closure of one of the city’s busiest airports and disrupting overnight and Monday operations.
Officials said the emergency vehicle was responding to a separate call on or near Runway 4 when the impact occurred.
Air Canada Express Flight 8646 was a CRJ-900 operated by Jazz Aviation, Air Canada’s regional partner, and was carrying 72 passengers and 4 crew members, for 76 people onboard in total, based on Air Canada’s preliminary manifest. The flight originated in Montreal and was arriving at LaGuardia when it struck the Port Authority vehicle during landing rollout.
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Flight-tracking data cited by Reuters put the jet’s speed at about 24 mph, or 39 km/h, at the time of impact. Images and eyewitness footage described by multiple outlets showed severe damage concentrated in the aircraft’s nose section, with the front of the plane visibly crushed and the fuselage pitched upward after the collision.
The FAA issued a ground stop for departures bound for LaGuardia because of what it described as an aircraft emergency, and flights arriving into the airport were diverted or turned back. Airport status information and media reports indicated that aircraft were rerouted to nearby airports or returned to origin points as the field was cleared for emergency response and investigation.
Beyond the fatalities, Reuters reported injuries to personnel on the emergency vehicle, including broken limbs, while AP reported emergency stairways were used to evacuate passengers from the aircraft.
The NTSB said it was launching a go-team to examine the collision.
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