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.
The disaster began 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 the NTSB.
An Air Canada jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority vehicle in New York. Ryan Murphy | AP Photo
Photos from the scene show the jetliner on the ground, surrounded by red rescue vehicles, in the glare of portable floodlights. Its crumpled nose is pointed toward the sky, the cockpit peeled back all the way back to the first passenger window, 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 logo emblazoned along the fuselage of the Bombardier CRJ.
A heavily damaged neon yellow fire truck was seen nearby, laying on its side.
A Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle lays on its side off of runway 4 after colliding with an Air Canada jet after it landed at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, in New York.Ryan Murphy | AP Photo
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.
Officials examine the area around an airport fire truck on the runway at LaGuardia Airport after a collision with an Air Canada jet that had just landed, Monday, March 23, 2026, in New York.Ryan Murphy | AP Photo
“Stop, Truck 1. Stop,” the transmission says. The controller can then be heard frantically diverting incoming aircraft from landing.
Afterward, disaster struck, 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 plane was identified as a Bombardier CRJ900. These are regional jets built for short- to medium-haul routes and meant to handle between 50 to 100 passengers.
It’s a narrow body aircraft with two engines mounted at the rear of the fuselage and a tail shaped like the letter T, giving it a distinctive profile.
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.
Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia speaks during a news conference at LaGuardia Airport after a collision between an Air Canada jet that had just landed and a Port Authority fire truck, Monday, March 23, 2026, in New York. Ryan Murphy | AP Photo
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 National Transportation Safety Board.
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 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
