U.S. officials provide update on fatal Air Canada collision at LaGuardia airport

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Video shows Air Canada plane crashing into fire truck on tarmac

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Fact check: Fake video of Air Canada plane generated by Grok

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The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, the agency investigating the crash, is scheduled to hold a news conference here at LaGuardia airport at 6:30 p.m. ET. 

We'll carry it live here. 

Video shows Air Canada plane crashing into fire truck on tarmac

CCTV footage caught the moment an Air Canada passenger jet carrying ‌72 passengers and four crew members collided with a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia airport late Sunday. Two pilots were killed in the crash.

We want to warn you that this video may be difficult to watch. CCTV footage shows the moment Air ⁠Canada Express Flight 8646, a CRJ-900 ⁠operated by Jazz Aviation, crashes into a Port Authority firefighting vehicle on the runway at LaGuardia airport in Queen's, N.Y. The flight was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal to New York. 

Air traffic audio indicates the fire truck was cleared to cross the runway before the collision.

Governor General Mary Simon offered condolences to friends, families and colleagues of the pilots, and wished strength and full recovery to those injured.

"May we come together as Canadians to acknowledge the dedication and service of our aviation community," she said in a statement. "In moments like these, we are reminded of the immense responsibility and quiet courage they carry every day. May their lives be honoured and never forgotten and may those who loved them be surrounded by strength and care."

Radio-Canada has identified the two pilots killed in the crash as Antoine Forest and MacKenzie Gunther, who U.S. FAA administrator Bryan Bedford described as "two young men at the start of their careers."

New York Port Authority executive director Kathryn Garcia said the occupants of the rescue vehicle involved in the collision, Sergeant Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez, were both taken to hospital. She said one is expected to be released today and the other will be kept overnight for observation.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy confirmed there were 72 passengers and four crew on the plane and about 40 people sent to hospital, several of whom have been released. 

Flight attendant Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures to one leg and will need surgery after being thrown from the plane, according to her daughter, who called her survival a "total miracle." 

Transport Canada working with airline, FAA after fatal runway crash at N.Y. Airport: minister

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon offered condolences to all affected by an incident where an Air Canada Express passenger jet collided with a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia airport late Sunday, killing the pilot and first officer and injuring others.

Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon told reporters that Canadian and U.S. Officials are co-operating, and said Transport Canada advisors and Transport Security Administration officials are at LaGuardia or en route there. 

MacKinnon said Canada has very high air safety standards that are continuously improving, but acknowledged a shortage of air traffic controllers and said he has asked Nav Canada, the non-profit that oversees controllers, to come up with recruitment solutions. 

"The airport and air traffic systems in Canada are incredibly safe and in fact are among the most rigorous and reputable in the world and we want to keep it that way. But we do have a shortage of air traffic controllers," he said. 

Asked whether Canadians can trust air traffic safety in the U.S., he said he believes the U.S. Applies "with the same rigour their standards and regulations."

Former FAA air traffic manager Michael McCormick can hear the "anguish" in the voice of the controller who professed he "messed up" after Sunday's deadly crash.

But he also noticed something else in those recordings: The voice directing the truck to cross the runway was the same voice clearing planes for landing. 

He noted that a similar situation played out during January's deadly mid-air collision near Washington.

Short-staffing, he says, is "a chronic problem" at the FAA, and one that's been going on for years.

"What that can contribute to are controllers that have to work six-day workweeks [and] do 10-hour work days. All of that can contribute to fatigue, and then fatigue can contribute to risk."

During the news conference at LaGuardia, two journalists asked Duffy about reports that claimed only one air traffic controller was on duty at the time of the incident. The U.S. Secretary of transportation said those reports are incorrect.  

David Michael Lamb

Fact check: Fake video of Air Canada plane generated by Grok

Can you tell this video of the LaGuardia Airport collision is fake? Grok was used to manipulate a photo of the damaged Air Canada plane, creating an AI-generated video.

Elon Musk's get the picture AI has been promoting a feature film where it testament revivify a ease picture and make a video of it.

Today, someone used that to make a fake video of first responders inspecting the wreckage of the plane. We believe the image it's based on is real. But the video isn't.

After the war in Iran started, Grok changed its policy to ban people from making fake videos of armed conflict. But this video of the Air Canada crash does not violate its rules.

The Associated Press

The impact of the collision hurled a flight attendant — still secured to her seat — far from the site of the crash, her daughter told a Canadian TV station. The flight attendant survived. 

Flight attendant Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures to one leg and will need surgery after being thrown from the plane, daughter Sarah Lépine told Montreal-based news station TVA Nouvelles. 

Her survival is "a total miracle," Lépine said. "I'm still trying to understand how all this happened, but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her," Lépine told the station.

MacKenzie Gunther has been identified as the first officer, according to Radio-Canada sources.

Quebec resident Antoine Forest was one of the pilots killed in the crash at New York's LaGuardia airport late Sunday, according to Radio-Canada sources.

Forest was from Coteau-du-Lac, Que., southwest of Montreal on the St. Lawrence River, about 20 kilometres east of the Ontario border.

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