By Gareth Vipers and Austin Ramzy
New York City's LaGuardia Airport was closed Monday after a passenger plane collided with an emergency vehicle on the runway, killing two pilots, authorities said.
An Air Canada Express plane was arriving from Montreal when it collided with a firefighting vehicle late Sunday, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The Federal Aviation Administration implemented a full ground stop until Monday afternoon.
The two pilots of the Air Canada Express plane were killed in the crash, a spokesperson for the Port Authority said.
A further 41 people, including passengers, crew, and two Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting officers, were taken to the hospital, they added.
The incident happened at around 11:40 p.m. Sunday when a Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada struck a Port Authority firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident. Jazz Aviation said the preliminary passenger list indicated the aircraft was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members.
The FAA said LaGuardia would remain closed until at least 2 p.m. ET Monday.
Images from the scene showed the front end of the plane sheared off roughly from the spot of the plane's front doors.
Flightradar24, a tracking platform, said the Air Canada Express CRJ-900, Flight AC8646, was arriving from Montreal and rolling down Runway 4 when it struck the airport firefighting vehicle. The plane's last recorded ground speed was 21 knots, or about 24 miles an hour, Flightradar24 said.
Jazz Aviation is the primary operator of Air Canada Express flights and the largest regional airline in Canada.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is responsible for investigating plane accidents in the U.S., said it was sending a team to the scene. Regulators have been worried for years about runway collisions in the U.S. because of a string of near misses, such as one involving an emergency vehicle crossing a runway in Baltimore.
Write to Gareth Vipers at gareth.vipers@wsj.com and Austin Ramzy at austin.ramzy@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 23, 2026 05:37 ET (09:37 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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