Passenger jet collides with fire truck in New York’s LaGuardia, killing both pilots
By Gursimran Mehar, Bing Guan and Shubham Kalia
NEW YORK, March 23 (Reuters) – An Air Canada Express jet collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport late on Sunday, killing both pilots, injuring dozens of people and closing the airport, officials said.
Kathryn Garcia, general manager of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the Air Canada Express CRJ-900 aircraft, operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal, Canada. Jazz is owned by Chorus Aviation.
Garcia said that 32 of the 41 injured were released, while nine remained in the hospital with “serious injuries.” The injured included passengers, crew and two officers on the fire truck; both officers remained hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
FIRE TRUCK WAS TAKEN OUT TO CROSS THE RUNWAY
The fire truck responded to a separate United Airlines plane “reporting an odor problem,” Garcia said.
Minutes earlier, air traffic control (ATC) audio from LiveATC.net showed that a United Airlines flight had declared an emergency due to an odor on board. Controllers informed the crew that fire trucks were already in the area.
A second transmission later indicates that a fire engine was allowed to cross Runway 4 via taxiway ‘Delta’, where the collision occurred.
Moments later, a controller can be heard saying on ATC audio: “Stop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop, truck 1, stop.”
The plane crashed into the fire truck at about 24 miles per hour (39 km/h), according to flight tracking site Flightradar24, which last recorded data at 11:37 p.m. ET (0337 GMT).
Photographs taken by Reuters after the accident showed visible damage to the nose of the plane, which was tilted upwards.
Air Canada said it was aware of the incident, referring Reuters to Jazz’s statement. Jazz had previously acknowledged the collision and said it would provide more details when available.
FLIGHTS HAVE BEEN CANCELED, DELAYS ARE EXPECTED
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it had assigned a team of technical experts to investigate the incident, while the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the airport was expected to remain closed until 2pm ET (18:00 GMT) on Monday.
The closure of one of New York’s busiest airports will add to travel disruptions caused by a weeks-long partial government shutdown. Increased absenteeism among transportation security workers has led to long lines for passengers at major U.S. airports.
New York City’s emergency notification system said people could expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays and emergency personnel near the airport.
About 537 flights had been canceled at the airport through Monday, according to tracking site FlightAware.
LaGuardia served more than 30 million passengers annually in 2025, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and multiple U.S. airlines operate at the airport.
LATEST EVENTS
According to the FAA, there were 97 runway incursions in January this year, compared to 133 incidents during the same period last year.
A bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers last month introduced legislation that would address 50 aviation safety recommendations issued after a year-long investigation into the January 2025 crash between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people.
Last year also saw a UPS cargo plane crash shortly after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky; Seven people on the ground were killed and 11 injured.
(Reporting by Gursimran Kaur, Shubham Kalia, Abu Sultan, Preetika Parashuraman and Ruchika Khanna in Bengaluru, Bing Guan in New York and David Shepardson in Washington; Additional reporting by Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Jamie Freed and Joe Bavier)
