A Canadian flight attendant survived a horrific plane crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport after being ejected more than 100 metres from the aircraft while still strapped to her seat, her daughter has described as a “complete miracle”.
Solange Tremblay, a flight attendant on the Air Canada Jazz flight, was among nine people taken to hospital following the collision with a fire truck on Sunday. The crash killed both the pilot and co-pilot of the CRJ-900 jet operated by Jazz Aviation.
“At the moment of impact, her seat was ejected more than 100 metres from the plane. They found her and she was still strapped into her seat,” her daughter Sarah Lépine told Quebec’s TVA News. “She had a guardian angel watching over her. It could have been much worse.”
Lépine said her mother suffered multiple bone fractures and underwent surgery for a broken leg. Tremblay had worked for Jazz for 26 years, according to her social media profile.
Air traffic control recordings captured the moment a controller cleared a vehicle to cross part of the runway before urgently trying to stop it. “Stop, Truck 1. Stop,” the transmission says, as the controller attempted to divert incoming aircraft. After the collision, one controller said the impact “wasn’t good to watch”, while another responded: “I messed up.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney described the collision as “deeply saddening”. The pilots were identified as Antoine Forest, 30, and Mackenzie Gunther.
