An Air Canada Express regional jet from Montreal struck a Port Authority fire truck after landing at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the captain and first officer, injuring dozens of other people and forcing a shutdown at one of the New York region’s busiest airports.
The crash quickly became more than a runway emergency. It left a damaged CRJ-900 and an overturned rescue vehicle on the airfield, sent 41 people to hospitals and opened an investigation into how a landing passenger plane and an airport emergency truck were allowed onto the same strip of pavement. By Monday, the National Transportation Safety Board had taken charge of the inquiry, the Federal Aviation Administration had halted traffic at LaGuardia until at least 2 p.m., and airlines were already dealing with widespread cancellations and diversions across the region.
Authorities said Air Canada Express Flight AC8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, arrived from Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport and struck the airport vehicle at about 11:45 p.m. Sunday after landing on Runway 4. The FAA said the aircraft hit an Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle after touchdown. Reuters, citing air traffic control audio and airport officials, reported the truck had been cleared to cross the runway at taxiway Delta while responding to another call. Seconds later, a controller can be heard on tower audio yelling, “Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1,” as the jet continued through its landing roll. The force of the collision crushed the nose of the plane, tore open the front section and flipped the truck onto its side near the runway edge. Firefighters, police officers and airport crews rushed onto the field as other arriving aircraft were told to break off approaches or hold away from the airport.
Air Canada said its preliminary passenger list showed about 72 passengers and four crew members on board, though the airline said early counts were still subject to confirmation. The Port Authority confirmed that the captain and first officer were killed. Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, later said 41 injured people had been taken to hospitals and that 32 had been released by Monday, leaving nine still hospitalized with serious injuries. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said at least two Port Authority firefighters were among those seriously hurt. In a statement, Air Canada President and CEO Michael Rousseau said the airline was “deeply saddened by the loss of two Jazz employees” and was sending specialized teams to New York to help customers and relatives. The two dead pilots were based in Canada, Garcia said, and the airline opened a family assistance line while its crews and Jazz officials headed to the crash site.
The collision happened while the airport was already dealing with a separate emergency. Garcia said the truck had been sent to check on a United Airlines plane whose crew reported an odor on board. Reuters reported that air traffic control audio captured the United crew declaring an emergency, with controllers telling them rescue trucks were already in position. A later transmission showed the fire truck receiving permission to cross Runway 4. Then, with the Air Canada jet already on the runway, the warning came too late. Roughly 20 minutes after the crash, a controller on the same audio appeared to blame himself, saying, “I messed up.” What remains unclear is whether the same controller was juggling local and ground movements at that hour, what exact clearances were read back by the truck crew and cockpit, and whether every handoff between runway and emergency traffic happened in the order investigators expected. Officials had not publicly answered those questions by Monday afternoon.
That uncertainty matters because the crash unfolded on one of the country’s busier urban airfields and at an airport with technology meant to help spot ground conflicts. The Associated Press reported that LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports equipped with an advanced surface surveillance system designed to track aircraft and vehicles moving around the airfield. Former FAA air traffic control chief Mike McCormick told AP the system is “an aid in a situation like this,” but it does not decide whether a crossing clearance is proper. AP also cited FAA statistics showing 1,636 runway incursions last year, a reminder that many of aviation’s most dangerous failures happen on the ground, not in the air. LaGuardia ranked as the 19th busiest U.S. airport in 2024, with more than 16.7 million passengers boarding there, according to FAA data cited by AP. The airport’s tight layout, short taxi times and heavy schedule can leave little room for error when normal traffic and emergency vehicles intersect.
The next phase is procedural and likely slow. The FAA said the NTSB is in charge and will issue updates. Canada’s Transportation Safety Board also deployed a team to support the U.S. inquiry, while Air Canada and Jazz said they were cooperating with both agencies. Investigators are expected to examine tower recordings, surface movement data, runway and vehicle logs, dispatch records for the rescue truck, maintenance and damage evidence from both vehicles, weather and visibility conditions, and the sequence of instructions issued as the United odor call and the Air Canada landing overlapped. CBS New York reported that the NTSB was expected to hold a press conference Monday afternoon, with Duffy also traveling to the scene. The airport closure, first posted in FAA notices overnight, was expected to last until at least 2 p.m. Monday. By midday, news reports based on flight tracking data showed well over 500 cancellations at LaGuardia, with some flights diverted to Kennedy and Newark and delays spreading into other airline networks.
Passengers described a routine short flight that turned violent in seconds. Rebecca Liquori said the jet hit turbulence on descent, then braked hard before a loud boom threw people forward. “Everybody just jolted out of their seats,” she said in television interviews, adding that some passengers were bleeding and trying to figure out what had happened near the wrecked cockpit. Jack Cabot told CBS New York, “We came in pretty hard,” then felt the aircraft hit something and plunge the cabin into chaos. Survivors said they helped one another reach an emergency exit, climb onto a wing and slide down to the pavement. Outside, the plane sat in the dark with its nose pitched upward, cables and torn metal hanging from the crushed front section while emergency lights flashed across wet runway pavement. The scene made clear how much force was involved even though the impact happened after landing, during a phase of flight many travelers assume is nearly over.
As of Monday afternoon, March 23, 2026, investigators were still working the crash scene, LaGuardia’s operating status remained tied to runway clearance and damage removal, and the next public milestone was expected to be an NTSB briefing later in the day on the sequence of clearances that led to the collision.
Author note: Last updated March 23, 2026.