The bodies of the two Air Canada Express pilots killed in a collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday have been returned to Canada, as the aviation industry and their family and friends grapple with the aftermath of the crash.
The body of Mackenzie Gunther was carried off a plane Thursday afternoon at Ottawa International Airport. The body of Antoine Forest — a Quebecer — was then flown from Ottawa to Montreal–Trudeau International Airport.
Hundreds of pilots and flight staff waited in the rain, lined up in front of Air Canada’s Montreal headquarters to honour Forest. The procession rolled through after sundown.
Captain Tim Perry, president of the Air Line Pilots Association Canada, told journalists the pilot community is mourning the two young aviators.
He added a thorough investigation will be conducted to prevent such tragedies.
“No family should go through this,” he said. “It must be the promise that when a pilot leaves to work or when anyone leaves to travel by air that they come home alive. Our work begins tomorrow to live up to that promise.”
Pilots carry the casket during the repatriation of Jazz Aviation pilot Mackenzie Gunther, who died after his Air Canada Express plane collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, in Ottawa, on Thursday, March 26, 2026. Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press
The pilots’ deaths reverberated across Canada, especially the aviation community.
In Quebec, Forest’s death has prompted an outpouring of grief in his hometown of Coteau-du-Lac, southwest of Montreal, where friends and family have remembered him as a young pilot who had chased flight from an early age.
More than 40 people were taken to hospital, though most were released within hours. Four people remained hospitalized as of midweek, Air Canada said.
The airline said crews have since begun recovering passenger belongings and moving the aircraft to a secure hangar, after it was released by investigators.
The runway at LaGuardia where the collision took place reopened Thursday morning after repairs and safety inspections, airport officials said.
Investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are continuing to examine how both the incoming aircraft and the fire truck were cleared onto the same runway.
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The Canadian Press contributed to this report.