2 Dead After an Air Canada Plane Collides With a Fire Truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport

A devastating incident unfolded late Sunday night at New York’s LaGuardia Airport when an Air Canada Express passenger jet collided with a fire truck shortly after landing, leaving two people dead and dozens injured. The flight in question was Air Canada Express Flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, which had arrived from Montreal. The collision occurred at approximately 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, sending shockwaves through the aviation community and prompting an immediate closure of the airport.

According to sources familiar with the investigation, the aircraft was traveling between 24 and 30 miles per hour at the time of impact. The crash caused significant damage to the nose of the plane, and the consequences for those in the cockpit were fatal. Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia confirmed the worst to reporters gathered at the scene: “Sadly, the two pilots are confirmed deceased.” The victims were the aircraft’s pilot and co-pilot, both of whom perished in the collision.

Jazz Aviation confirmed that 72 passengers were on board Flight 8646 at the time of the crash. More than a dozen of those passengers were injured and transported to nearby hospitals. Garcia later clarified that 41 passengers and crew members in total had been taken to the hospital in the aftermath, with 32 of them subsequently discharged. However, she noted that some of the injuries were described as “serious,” leaving families and loved ones in a state of anxious uncertainty.

The fire truck involved in the collision had not simply been sitting idle on the tarmac. According to a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the vehicle had been “responding to a separate incident” at the time, specifically a situation aboard a United Airlines flight where an odor had been reported onboard. Two officers were stationed at the fire truck when the crash occurred, and NBC reported that a sergeant and an officer were both taken to the hospital with broken limbs.

The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation into the incident, working to piece together exactly how a routine landing ended in such tragedy. The Federal Aviation Administration announced that LaGuardia Airport would remain closed until at least 2:00 p.m. on Monday, March 23, causing widespread disruption for travelers. New York’s Police Department urged the public to “expect delays and avoid the area if possible,” while the New York City Fire Department advised commuters to use alternate routes, warning of “cancellations, road closures, traffic delays and emergency personnel near LaGuardia Airport in Queens.”

The scale of the disruption underscored just how central LaGuardia is to the region’s transportation network. In 2025, the airport served over 30 million passengers annually, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Closures of any significant duration ripple across flight schedules up and down the East Coast, affecting thousands of travelers on any given day.

The tragedy has renewed conversations about airport ground safety protocols and the coordination required between incoming aircraft and emergency vehicles operating on active tarmac areas. Questions are already being raised about communication procedures and whether the simultaneous handling of two separate incidents on the same airport grounds contributed to the collision.

LaGuardia Airport, which sits on Flushing Bay in the borough of Queens, handles a staggering number of domestic flights and has undergone a multibillion-dollar renovation in recent years to modernize its terminals. Despite those upgrades, Sunday night’s events serve as a sobering reminder that aviation safety extends well beyond the skies. The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to be thorough and far-reaching, with officials determined to understand every factor that led to this fatal outcome.

LaGuardia Airport opened in 1939 and was named after New York City Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, who famously refused to disembark from a flight in Newark and demanded to be taken to a New York City airport instead, which directly inspired the construction of the facility. Runway incursions and ground vehicle collisions, while rare, have historically been among the most studied categories of aviation incidents precisely because they occur after the perceived danger of flight has already passed. Jazz Aviation, the regional carrier that operated Flight 8646 under the Air Canada Express banner, is one of Canada’s largest regional airlines, operating hundreds of flights daily across North America.

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