Two pilots were killed when an Air Canada Express regional jet collided with a fire truck while landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York late Sunday night, leaving dozens of passengers and emergency responders injured and forcing the temporary closure of the busy airport.
The aircraft, a CRJ-900 operated by Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal at the time of the incident. Jazz Aviation is a subsidiary of Chorus Aviation.
Sources reported that the fire truck was manned by police officers responding to a separate emergency on the runway. At least two officers, including a sergeant, suffered broken limbs but were in stable condition at a hospital.
Flight tracking data from Flightradar24 showed the aircraft struck the fire vehicle at approximately 24 miles per hour (39 km/h), with the last recorded position logged at 11:37 p.m. ET. Photos from the scene showed significant damage to the nose of the plane, which appeared tilted upward after impact.
The Federal Aviation Administration has not confirmed casualty figures but stated that the airport will remain closed until at least 2 p.m. Monday. At least 18 flights have been diverted or returned to their origin airports due to the disruption.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey confirmed that the firefighting vehicle was responding to another incident when it was struck by the incoming plane on Runway 4. Emergency services responded swiftly, and the city’s alert system warned of widespread flight cancellations, traffic disruptions, and a heavy presence of emergency personnel around the airport.
LaGuardia Airport, one of the busiest in the United States, handled over 30 million passengers in 2025, making this incident one of the most serious aviation disruptions in recent years. Investigations into the cause of the collision are ongoing.
