Tragedy at LaGuardia: Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck during landing

Late in the evening on March 22, a tragedy involving an Air Canada Express regional flight from Montreal occurred at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. While landing, a Bombardier CRJ-900 collided on the runway with a fire truck that was rushing to another emergency call at the time. As a result of the crash, two pilots were killed, and dozens of other people sustained injuries of varying severity.

According to U.S. media and official services, there were 72 passengers and 4 crew members on board. The flight itself was operated by Jazz Aviation under agreement with Air Canada. After the collision, 41 people were taken to hospitals, including passengers, crew members, and two emergency workers who were in the fire truck. By Monday, some of the injured had already been discharged, but several people remain in serious condition.

Preliminary information points to a serious breakdown in ground coordination. The fire truck had been dispatched to another United Airlines aircraft after a report of an odor in the cabin, and according to published air traffic control recordings, the controller was trying to stop the vehicle literally seconds before the impact. The investigation is already being conducted by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

Because of the incident, operations at LaGuardia were temporarily suspended, leading to hundreds of flight cancellations and delays. This catastrophe has once again raised the urgent question of airport safety and how reliably coordination between controllers, flight crews, and emergency services is organized today.