A tragedy occurred late last night. An Air Canada Express plane arriving from Montreal collided with a fire truck on the runway at New York-LaGuardia airport (LGA). Unfortunately, both pilots lost their lives, and dozens were injured.
Accidents like this are extremely rare despite 100,000+ commercial flights in the air every single day, because each one is very seriously investigated to draw lessons from it.
While it’s early to know everything, this one seems pretty obvious. Flytrippers aims to help you travel for less through our 3 types of content, namely flight deals, travel rewards, and tips/inspiration/news.
Here are the details of the Air Canada collision at LaGuardia (including the newly-released video).
Video of the Air Canada collision at LaGuardia
Here’s the latest, CCTV footage of the collision with the ATC audio overlaid.
It helps to better understand the sad sequence of events.
The investigation will look at all the circumstances, and we’re always wary of jumping to conclusions, but this seems like a very clear case of air traffic controller error.
He even explicitly says “I messed up” later on the radio.
As you know, the US government shutdown is impacting many federal workers. This aspect will certainly be looked at.
Air traffic controller shortages were even an issue before this, so it’s no surprise that many experts feel they are overworked.
I definitely understand that many people will be worried, especially given that 50,000+ Canadians still travel to the US every single day.
That said, I’m personally transiting in the New York area tomorrow, and I’m not worried. There are so many flights in the US every single day that the risk remains statistically insignificant. This is what the airspace looks like at 3:30 PM Eastern, for context.
One would imagine and hope that such a tragic accident would at least lead to improvements. Objectively, commercial aviation is by far the safest mode of transportation (and it’s not even particularly close).
What happened in the Air Canada collision at LaGuardia
Late Sunday night, a United Airlines plane taking off from LaGuardia had a rejected takeoff due to fumes in the cabin, and requested emergency vehicles.
A fire truck was on its way there and stopped at Runway 4. He clearly received clearance to cross the runway.
Unfortunately, Air Canada flight 8646, operated by a 20-year-old Bombardier CRJ-900, had just landed and was still on the runway.
The air traffic controller then realized his mistake and frantically told the truck to stop, but it was too late.
The images show that the plane was severely damaged.
Some sources are saying the plane was taxiing at 39 km/hr when the collision happened, but that remains to be confirmed.
Many seem to be surprised by the force of the impact, but keep in mind that small regional jets like that aren’t that big. You surely know this if you’ve ever flown one.
The Air Canada flight had 72 passengers and 4 crew onboard. Many are still being treated for their injuries. Our thoughts are with them and their loved ones.
A flight attendant apparently miraculously survived being ejected from the plane and was found still in her jumpseat on the ground.
LaGuardia airport was completely closed, but has now just reopened at 2PM this afternoon. Delays are to be expected, including at NYC’s 2 other major airports (JFK and EWR), where many flights were diverted.
More details to come.
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Summary
There was a tragic collision between an Air Canada Express flight from Montreal to New York-LaGuardia and a fire truck, directly on the runway. An air traffic control error seems to be the cause, but a thorough investigation will follow.
What would you like to know about the Air Canada Express collision? Tell us in the comments below.
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Featured image: Air Canada plane crash (photo credit: Unknown)
