Two pilots have died and dozens of passengers were injured after an Air Canada Express flight collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Monday. The aircraft, a 20-year-old CRJ900 operating flight AC8646 from Montreal, was carrying 72 passengers, two pilots and two cabin crew. The incident occurred at 11.38pm local time after the plane landed on runway 04.
Preliminary reports indicate that the fire truck had been cleared to cross the runway, while the pilots had been cleared to land. The collision killed both pilots and injured two emergency responders in the fire truck. The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation, and LaGuardia Airport remains closed until at least 2pm on Monday.
The accident has caused severe disruption, with around 500 flights grounded and many more delayed. Aircraft that were inbound were diverted to nearby airports including JFK, Newark, Baltimore, Washington Dulles and Detroit, while some flights returned to their origin. Two departures returned to gates and offloaded passengers.
LaGuardia typically handles nearly 50,000 passengers daily, and the closure will affect tens of thousands of travellers at the start of the working week. With JFK and Newark operating near capacity, options for rebooking are limited. Under US air passenger rights rules, airlines are not required to provide alternative transport or accommodation if disruption is beyond their control, though Canadian regulations may offer some protections for passengers travelling from Canada.
