{"id":556739,"date":"2026-03-24T04:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556739\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T04:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:36:09","slug":"experts-say-two-pilots-killed-in-air-canada-crash-had-little-chance-of-survival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556739\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts say two pilots killed in Air Canada crash had little chance of survival"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspect the wreckage of an Air Canada Express jet that collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York.NTSB\/Reuters<\/p>\n

The two pilots of an Air Canada Express flight who lost their lives in a crash with a fire truck at New York\u2019s LaGuardia Airport Sunday night likely had little chance of surviving their landing on a rain-slicked runway, aviation experts say. <\/p>\n

They might not even have seen the Port Authority truck until it was too late. And when impact came, there would have been little to protect them because commercial aircraft are not designed to withstand collisions of that force. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey really had no options and they unfortunately paid with their lives,\u201d said David McNair, a professional pilot and former accident investigator with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. \u201cOnce that truck went on the runway, there\u2019s no place they could go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two pilots killed after Air Canada jet crashes into fire truck at LaGuardia Airport<\/a><\/p>\n

The Bombardier CRJ900 jet, en route from Montreal, touched down and was going an estimated 167 kilometres an hour when it slammed into the emergency vehicle, according to data from Flightradar24. Images posted to social media showed a sickening scene, with the plane\u2019s nose ripped off and a mangled wreck of wiring and metal spilling down from a hole in the fuselage. <\/p>\n

Thirty-two of the 41 people injured in the accident had been released from hospital by Monday evening, while several remained in serious condition. In all, there were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard. <\/p>\n

Preliminary information suggests that a controller in the airport tower cleared the truck to cross the runway and respond to another incident involving a United Airlines jet. Realizing his misjudgment, he then told the truck to stop but it didn\u2019t. <\/p>\n

One passenger told reporters the flight had been smooth until the descent. She and another passenger described hearing an intense grinding noise as the pilot braked hard to try to slow the plane after touchdown. <\/p>\n

In audio recorded Sunday night, a voice could be heard telling a vehicle multiple times to ‘stop.’<\/p>\n

The Associated Press<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may have been that once the fire truck turned onto the runway, the collision was virtually inevitable,\u201d said Alan Diehl, a pilot and former aircraft design engineer who also investigated crashes for the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board. Both the plane and the truck are heavy vehicles that don\u2019t stop on a dime and poor visibility might also have played a role, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were probably very focused on getting the aircraft on the ground and may have not have noticed the truck moving at all,\u201d Mr. Diehl said of the pilots. \u201cThey wouldn\u2019t be expecting it to cross.\u201d <\/p>\n

Despite the lives lost, the outcome of the crash could have been worse, experts said. The aircraft\u2019s main fuel tanks, located on the wings and belly, weren\u2019t touched and so there was no fire, which would have escalated things and led to a much more calamitous situation, they noted. <\/p>\n

The bulk of the damage was done to the plane\u2019s front end, and the consequence was severe. <\/p>\n

Unlike cars, which feature bumpers and airbags, aircraft are not designed for collision, but rather to maintain comfortable air pressure inside the cabin while flying at high altitudes. Planes have a fairly thin skin made from lightweight composite materials, and their safety features are largely geared toward avoiding impacts. <\/p>\n

Mehran Ebrahimi, an aerospace specialist at the University of Quebec at Montreal, said the CRJ has an additional quirk in that it has a lower-profile front end than many other aircraft. That\u2019s in part so it can use its built-in stair doors for boarding at smaller airports. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe pilots would have been very exposed in this situation,\u201d Mr. Ebrahimi said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: National Transportation Safety Board investigators inspect the wreckage of an Air Canada Express…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,5756],"class_list":{"0":"post-556739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories","14":"tag-yesapplenews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556739","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=556739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}