An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle after landing in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

By The Canadian Press

Two pilots flying Air Canada jet killed in crash at New York LaGuardia Airport

Mar 22, 2026 | 11:59 PM

NEW YORK — An Air Canada jet carrying 76 people touched down and slammed into a fire truck on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night, killing its two pilots and injuring many more.

Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, said all who were on the plane — 72 passengers and four crew — have been accounted for.

“Sadly, the two pilots are confirmed deceased and notifications are being made by Air Canada’s care team at this time,” Garcia told a news conference in the pre-dawn hours of Monday. She added both were based out of Canada.

Garcia said 41 people were taken to two hospitals in Queens and that 32 were eventually released. Nine remained in care, including some in serious condition, she said.

Two Port Authority employees travelling in the fire truck suffered non-life-threatening injuries, said Garcia.

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The plane is operated by Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation, and the flight was designated AC8646.

Air Canada in a statement, said it has officials en route to LaGuardia to assist in the investigation, adding, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of two Jazz employees, and our deepest condolences go out to the entire Jazz community and their families.”

Disaster struck at shortly after 11:30 p.m. as the plane touched down after its journey from Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, the major airport serving Montreal.

The firefighting truck was responding to a separate incident when it was hit. Garcia confirmed it was a United Airlines flight that had an issue with odour on takeoff.

She deferred additional questions about the sequence of events leading up to the crash to investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Photos from the scene show the jetliner on the ground, surrounded by red rescue vehicles, in the glare of portable floodlights. It sits on its tail, its crumpled nose is pointed toward the sky, the cockpit peeled back all the way back to the side windows, exposing a shredded tangle of wires and flight controls.

Stairways used to evacuate passengers from aircraft were seen pushed up to the emergency exits on the white jet, the Air Canada Express livery emblazoned along the fuselage and tail of the CRJ-900.

A heavily damaged neon yellow fire truck was seen nearby, laying on its side.

In the moments before the crash, airport controllers were dealing with an emergency after a United Airlines flight aborted its takeoff and reported a strange odour onboard.

A review of publicly available air traffic control recordings by The Canadian Press suggests the odour made some flight attendants feel ill. LaGuardia controllers were also mobilizing a stair truck in case the plane needed to let people off.

One air traffic control could be heard on a radio transmission giving clearance to a vehicle to cross part of the tarmac, then trying to stop it.

“Stop, Truck 1. Stop,” the transmission says. The controller can then be heard frantically diverting incoming aircraft from landing.

In the aftermath of the tragedy, one staffer sought to console another.

“That wasn’t good to watch,” says one.

“I know. I tried to reach out,” says the second person. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier.”

“You did the best you could,” says the first.

The CRJ-900 is considered a workhorse feeder jet traditionally linking regions to bigger hub airports.

t is designed for 76 to 90 passengers for short and medium-haul routes. It has a narrow, long fuselage, two-rear mounted turbofan engines and a T-shaped tail, meaning the horizontal stabilizer sits high on the vertical fin.

Early Monday, some passengers who had arrived at LaGuardia hours before their flights hoping to beat security lines during the ongoing government funding lapse straggled out of the airport, rebooked for Tuesday.

Others were hastening to other airports, as far as Long Island MacArthur in suburban Ronkonkoma, to try to catch their flights.

Garcia said the airport was to remain closed until at least 2 p.m. Monday to facilitate the investigation, which was being led by the NTSB.

On social media, Canadian Transport Minister Steven McKinnon wrote that Canada is working closely with U.S. authorities as they investigate.

“Aviation safety remains our highest priority,” he said.

LaGuardia is one of the three major airports serving the New York City region. Located in the borough of Queens, it sits on the edge of Flushing Bay, east of Manhattan, with two main intersecting runways. It is extremely busy given its proximity to Manhattan and handles a heavy load of mostly domestic flights.

LaGuardia was 19th busiest in 2024 out of more than 500 U.S. airports, with over 16.7 million passengers boarding there, according to a 2025 FAA database.

The report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2026.

— By Aaron Sousa, Nick Murray and Dean Bennett, with files from The Associated Press

The Canadian Press