LaGuardia plane crash updates: Passenger praises pilot's actions

A passenger has recalled the moment an Air Canada jet collided with a firetruck on the runway after landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night in a crash that left two pilots dead. The passenger, Jack Cabot, told Fox News: “It was like a regular flight like always but as we were arriving we came down really hard, and then, we stopped really quickly and then, about two seconds later we just had an absolute slam – everybody was flying everywhere, the plane started veering off left and right…it was chaos.”

He added: “The pilot did the best thing he could, he hit the brakes as hard as he could, and he knew it was going to be at the cost of his own life”.

This came before the airport reopened as scheduled at 2 p.m. this afternoon.

What To Know:

Audio from the tower indicates controllers referenced “an emergency earlier” minutes after the collision.
The Air Canada Express Flight 8646, arriving from Montreal, struck a fire truck responding to a separate odor‑related incident on a United Airlines plane.
The crash killed both pilots and injured dozens; 41 passengers and crew were taken to hospitals, officials said.
Passengers reported no direction from the cockpit after impact; escape slides failed to deploy, forcing people to climb over the wings.
A flight attendant was ejected from the aircraft and initially unaccounted for, witnesses said.
The Bombardier CRJ‑900 remained on the runway more than 12 hours later with its nose sheared off.
The collision appears to be LaGuardia’s first fatal accident since 1992.
Hundreds of flights were canceled Monday as disruptions rippled across the region.
Two firefighters in the struck vehicle were hospitalized in stable condition.
The Port Authority confirmed the fire truck had been dispatched after a pilot reported an odor in the cabin.
Flight data shows the jet slowed from about 151 mph to 24 mph within a minute of landing.
Jazz Aviation, which operates Air Canada Express, serves 70 destinations across the U.S. and Canada.
An air traffic controller can be heard saying he “messed up” on air traffic audio reviewed by Newsweek

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