Two pilots flying Air Canada jet killed in crash at New York LaGuardia Airport
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NEW YORK – Two Air Canada pilots were killed late Sunday when their flight from Montreal crashed into a rescue vehicle on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said 41 people were taken to hospitals in Queens and that 32 were eventually released.
She said nine people remained in hospital and that some are in serious condition.
“Sadly the two pilots are confirmed deceased and notifications are being made by Air Canada’s care team at this time,” Garcia told a news conference early Monday.
A statement from Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, said 72 passengers and four crew member were on board the plane when it crashed. The flight originated at Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport in Montreal.
The Port Authority earlier said the aircraft struck a rescue and firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident.
Photos show the jet with its cockpit destroyed, wires and flight controls dangling out from the fuselage. Nearby, a damaged emergency vehicle lay on its side.
Stairways used to evacuate passengers from aircraft were pushed up to the emergency exits on the jet, a Bombardier CRJ.
The pilots were both based out of Canada, Garcia said.
The airport was to remain closed until at least 2 p.m. Monday to facilitate the investigation, which was being led by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The fire truck was travelling across the runway to respond to a separate incident aboard a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odour,” said Garcia. She deferred additional questions about the sequence of events leading up to the crash to the NTSB.
In the moments before the crash, an air traffic controller could be heard on a radio transmission giving clearance to a vehicle to cross part of the tarmac, then trying to stop it.
“Stop, Truck 1. Stop,” the transmission says. The controller can then be heard frantically diverting incoming aircraft from landing.
Early Monday, some passengers who had arrived at LaGuardia hours before their flights hoping to beat security lines during the ongoing government funding lapse straggled out of the airport, rebooked for Tuesday. Others were hastening to other airports, as far as Long Island MacArthur in suburban Ronkonkoma, to try to catch their flights.
The report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2026.