The captain and first officer of an Air Canada Express flight have died after their aircraft collided with a fire truck on the runway shortly after landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport.
The aftermath of the tragedy is causing severe disruption for tens of thousands of travellers at the start of the working week.
Flight AC8646 from Montreal was being operated by a 20-year-old CRJ900 aircraft. The plane was carrying 72 passengers, two pilots and two cabin crew.
The pilots had been reportedly cleared to land on runway 04. A recording of air traffic control exchanges suggests that the fire truck was also cleared to cross the runway.
The aircraft and truck collided at 11.38pm local time. The two pilots died and dozens of passengers were hurt. In addition, two emergency responders in the fire truck were injured.
The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation, and LaGuardia airport is closed until at least 2pm on Monday.
When the accident happened, diversions and cancellations began immediately. While LaGuardia is not as busy as New York’s JFK or Newark airport, it is in the top 20 for passenger numbers in the US. On a typical day, nearly 50,000 passengers arrive or depart at LGA.
Immediately after the collision, multiple aircraft returned to their starting points, including Air Canada from Toronto, Spirit from Chicago and Fort Lauderdale, Frontier from Atlanta and American Eagle from Washington Reagan.
Thirteen other planes diverted to nearby airports: eight to New York JFK, two to Newark and one each to Baltimore Washington, Washington Dulles and Detroit.
Two aircraft waiting to take off – Frontier to Miami and Republic to Houston – returned to their gates and offloaded passengers.
Operations normally resume at 6am at LaGuardia, with a bank of departures scheduled across the US and eastern Canada.
Data from the airport and Flightradar24 analysed by The Independent indicates that around 500 flights have so far been grounded.
Dozens more are shown as severely delayed, with some American Airlines flights rescheduled for as late as 8pm.
Both JFK and Newark airports run close to capacity. There will be little opportunity for airlines to switch to either airport – or for passengers to find seats on flights to or from those hubs.
Air passengers’ rights rules within the US do not require airlines to provide alternative transport or accommodation in the event of disruption if the cause is beyond their control.
Passengers to and from Canada have some additional rights. The Canadian Transportation Agency says: “In situations outside its control, the airline operating the flight must ensure that the passengers complete their journey.”
Transatlantic flights do not use LaGuardia because it has no international passenger processing facilities. Travellers arriving from Canada have been pre-cleared by US Customs and Border Protection.
In January 2025, 67 people died when an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided close to Washington Reagan airport
