The daughter of an Air Canada flight attendant who was tossed hundreds of feet after a deadly crash at LaGuardia has shared an update on her mother’s condition as she recovers from her horrific injuries.
On March 22, an Air Canada Express plane crashed into a fire truck on the tarmac at LaGuardia, killing its two pilots — Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther — and ejecting flight attendant Solange Tremblay from the wreckage.
She was still strapped to hear seat when she was thrown 320 feet from the plane, and suffered severe injuries — including leg breaks and a fractured spine.
“My mother’s injuries include two shattered legs (open fractures) requiring multiple surgeries where metal plates are needed to repair the damage done to her legs,” her daughter, Sarah Lepine, said in a GoFundMe update.
“She sustained a fractured spine where she continues to wait and see if surgery is required. Furthermore, she requires skin [grafts] to repair the missing flesh she lost on her legs while sliding down the tarmac,” she added.
Lepine noted that her mother also required a blood transfusion due to complications with one of her surgeries.
Along with updates on her overall recovery, the GoFundMe page also include a picture of Tremblay in a hospital bed smiling next to a visitor. Her legs and right knee are bandaged.
Lepine said that her mother has “suffered so much” from the crash and noted that she still has a ways to go before she is fully recovered.
“She will have to undergo several other surgeries, along with intensive rehabilitation to learn how to walk again. At the moment our greatest fear is the risk of infection which could lead to other horrifying complications if her injuries become infected,” she said.
As of Sunday, the fundraiser has raised almost CA$140,000 of an CA$160,000 target.
While dozens of people were injured in the crash, most were able to walk away or spent limited time in the hospital. As of Sunday, only five of the injured were still recovering in hospitals.
The crash — which was one of the most serious incidents to occur at LaGuardia in decades and the first fatal crash in 30 years — is still under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Kathryn Garcia, the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told CBS News New York that her office will wait for the NTSB report before pursuing any changes to how the airport operates.
LaGuardia has a notably shorter runway than JFK and Newark Liberty Airport, and pilots have complained about close calls and communication issues with air traffic controllers, according to the New York Post, but Garcia said she won’t speculate on a possible cause until a report is available.
