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 and closing the airport, authorities said, in an incident likely to intensify scrutiny after a series of recent aviation lapses.
The Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane, operated by its regional partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal, Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Jazz is owned by Chorus Aviation.
Garcia said 32 of the 41 injured had been released, while nine remained in hospital with “serious injuries.” Those injured included passengers, crew members and the two officers aboard the fire truck; both officers remained hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.
FIRE TRUCK WAS CLEARED TO CROSS RUNWAY
Garcia said the fire truck was responding to a separate United Airlines aircraft that had “reported an issue with odor.”
Minutes earlier, air traffic control (ATC) audio from LiveATC.net indicated that a United Airlines flight had declared an emergency due to an odor onboard. Controllers advised the crew that fire trucks were already on site.
A second transmission then shows a fire truck was cleared to cross Runway 4, where the collision occurred, at taxiway ‘Delta.’
Moments later, according to the ATC audio, a controller can be heard saying: “Stop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop, truck 1, stop.”
The aircraft struck the fire vehicle at a speed of about 24 miles per hour (39 kph), according to flight tracking website Flightradar24, which last recorded data at 11:37 p.m. ET (0337 GMT).
Photos taken by Reuters after the accident showed visible damage to the nose of the plane, which was tilted upward.
Air Canada referred Reuters to Jazz’s statement and said it was aware of the incident. Jazz had earlier acknowledged the collision and said it would provide further details when available.
FLIGHTS CANCELLED, DELAYS EXPECTED
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was deploying a team of technical experts to investigate the incident, while the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the airport was expected to remain shut until 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Monday.
The closure of one of New York’s busiest airports will add to travel disruption caused by the weeks-long partial government shutdown. Absences among transportation security workers have soared, leading to lengthy 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 so far on Monday, according to tracking website FlightAware.
LaGuardia served more than 30 million annual passengers in 2025, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and a wide range of U.S. airlines operate at the airport.
RECENT INCIDENTS
According to the FAA, there have been 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 proposed legislation to address 50 aviation safety recommendations issued after a year-long investigation into the January 2025 collision 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, killing seven and injuring 11 on the ground.
(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)
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