{"id":555524,"date":"2026-03-23T15:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/555524\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T15:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T15:24:10","slug":"2-air-canada-pilots-dead-after-flight-from-montreal-crashes-at-laguardia-airport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/555524\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Air Canada pilots dead after flight from Montreal crashes at LaGuardia Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Air Canada<\/a> pilots are dead after their flight originating from Montreal collided with a fire truck at New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport<\/a> Sunday night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The flight with Jazz Aviation, Air Canada\u2019s regional airline, was carrying 76 people when it touched down and slammed into a fire truck on a runway at around 11:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) is now deploying a team of investigators\u00a0to support the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in their investigation surrounding the collision.<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Mark Carney has released a , calling the collision \u201cdeeply saddening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon has also expressed his condolences on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada is working closely with U.S. authorities as they investigate this incident, and we are following developments closely. Aviation safety remains our highest priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has also said on X<\/a> he is \u201csaddened to hear of the awful news of the plane collision at LaGuardia Airport.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCanadian officials are working closely with their U.S. counterparts on the ground as the investigation continues. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those impacted,\u201d the statement reads.<\/p>\n

Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs the airport, said the 72 passengers and four crew have been accounted for.<\/p>\n

However, the two pilots \u2013 who were based out of Canada \u2013 died, she told reporters early Monday morning.<\/p>\n

Garcia said 41 people were taken to two hospitals in Queens and 32 were eventually released. Nine remained in care, including some in serious condition, she said.<\/p>\n

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Two Port Authority employees travelling in the fire truck suffered non-life-threatening injuries, she added.<\/p>\n

The flight originated from Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport. A fire truck was crossing Runway 4 in response to a separate incident involving a United Airlines flight when it was hit. Garcia said that issue was related to an odour on takeoff.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe airport is currently closed to facilitate the response and allow for a thorough investigation. This is a developing situation based on preliminary information,\u201d LaGuardia said in a post on X Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Port Authority Police Department is working closely with our airline partners as well as federal authorities and will provide additional updates as more details become available.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It will remain closed until 2 p.m., the airport added, while the National Transportation Safety Board investigates with the support of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada.<\/p>\n

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Air Canada said in a statement Monday that Flight 8646 was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members, though it was subject to confirmation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that the pilot and the first officer were killed in this accident. 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,\u201d the airline said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAir Canada and Jazz Aviation are cooperating with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and the National Transportation Safety Board in the United States in the investigation of the cause of this incident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doug Clarke, president of Jazz Aviation, said in a statement that it\u2019s an \u201cincredibly difficult day\u201d for the airline.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the investigation unfolds, we are fully committed to cooperating with the relevant authorities to determine what happened,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will share updates as soon as verified information becomes available. We will continue to provide our full support in the days and weeks ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photos from the scene showed severe damage to the front of the aircraft, with cables and debris hanging from a mangled cockpit. Nearby, a damaged emergency vehicle was on its side.<\/p>\n

Stairways used to evacuate passengers from aircraft were pushed up to the emergency exits on the jet, a Mitsubishi CRJ-900. The impact left the jet with its crumpled nose tilted upward.<\/p>\n

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The Associated Press reported that in the moments before the crash, an air traffic controller could be heard on a radio transmission giving clearance to a vehicle to cross part of the tarmac, then trying to stop it. The controller was heard frantically diverting incoming aircraft from landing afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0with files from The Associated Press and The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Air Canada pilots are dead after their flight originating from Montreal collided with a fire truck at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":555525,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[23684,48,43,215358,44,79078,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-555524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-air-canada","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-laguardia-airport","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-plane-crash","14":"tag-top-news","15":"tag-top-stories","16":"tag-topnews","17":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=555524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/555524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/555525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=555524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=555524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=555524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}