An Air Canada passenger plane collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night, killing the pilot and co-pilot and injuring several others.ALSO READ | Who is Antoine Forest? One of 2 Air Canada pilots killed in LaGuardia crash identifiedVideo shows the truck crossing the tarmac when the plane hit it.“Oh my God!” a man (possibly watching CCTV footage) can be heard saying in the background.Shortly before the collision, air traffic controllers urgently instructed fire trucks to halt airport communications.ALSO READ | ‘Stop, stop, stop!’: Cockpit audio captures final moments between pilot and co-pilot in Air Canada crashAbout 20 minutes later, the controller seemed to accept responsibility, saying: “We were dealing with an emergency and I messed up.”The truck had been cleared to enter the runway to inspect a United Airlines plane that reported an odor on board.There were 72 passengers and four crew members on board the Jazz Aviation flight, operated on behalf of Air Canada, according to Air Canada. The flight took off from Montreal-Trudeau International Airport.ALSO READ | Is LaGuardia Airport open? Fatal collision on New York runway disrupts hundreds of flightsAbout 40 passengers and crew, as well as two people on the fire truck, were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries. Most were released Monday morning, authorities said.Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia Airport, said the pilot and co-pilot who died lived in Canada. In 2024, the airport was the 19th busiest airport in the United States, with more than 16.7 million boarding passengers, according to the 2025 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) database.FAA statistics show that there were 1,636 runway incursions last year.LaGuardia Airport will be closed until at least early Monday afternoon (U.S. local time) while an investigation led by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board takes place. Canada also sent an investigative team.(With AP input)
