Eyewitnesses have described the moment Air Canada flight AC8646 crashed into a fire truck on the runway of New York's LaGuardia airport, killing two pilots and injuring dozens of others.
We were literally like 100 metres away, says 23-year-old Leo Medina, who was onboard another plane on the tarmac when the crash happened. It was like the plane got cut in half. He told the BBC he then had to return to the gate and had been waiting in the airport for more than 12 hours, sleeping on the floor on a bed of jackets.
After visiting the crash site on Monday, US Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy said he was reminded of the importance of wearing seat belts - on an aircraft or in any other mode of transportation. As you see from last night, they do save lives, Duffy said during a news conference.
Québec native Antoine Forest, 30, was identified as one of the Air Canada pilots who died in the collision, according to reports in Canadian media. The other pilot has not yet been named. These were two young men at the start of their career, so it's an absolute tragedy, FAA administrator Bran Bedford said.
In addition to killing the two pilots, the incident, which happened at 23:40 local time on Sunday (03:40 GMT on Monday), injured 41 people who were taken to hospital, some with serious injuries.
Passenger Rebecca Liquori, who was on the plane arriving from Montreal when it hit the truck, recalled a loud boom immediately after landing. As we were descending, we hit a lot of turbulence, she said. Then we landed very roughly… Everyone felt it. It was like the plane jolted and you heard the pilot try to brake trying to prevent the collision. Liquori described passengers helping each other slide down a wing to escape.
In an audio from air traffic control, a staff member can be heard urgently instructing the fire truck to stop just before the collision. The fire truck was responding to an incident on another plane that had reported an issue with an odour.
The National Transportation Safety Board has initiated a thorough investigation into the incident. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani expressed gratitude to first responders for their swift actions, stating, I am grateful to our first responders, whose swift actions saved lives. Many of the injured have since been released from hospitals, but the tragedy has left a stark reminder of the dangers of air travel.
