Air Canada passengers recount moment of deadly collision on La Guardia runway
Posted on: Mar 23, 2026 14:42 IST | Posted by: Cbc
send Canada passengers who were alongside flight of steps 8646 when the CRJ-900 aircraft struck a discharge motortruck upon landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Sunday evening say the collision was sudden and forceful, and they may owe their lives to the pilots who died in the incident.
"And then, it was just this sudden, overwhelming, like, panic, because we'd hit something and there was nobody in control."
The crash occurred late Sunday evening.
The captain and the first officer were killed. Radio-Canada sources have identified the captain as Antoine Forest and the first officer as Mackenzie Gunther.
The flight, which was operated by Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation, had taken off from Montreal Trudeau International Airport and then headed on to New York's LaGuardia.
Air Canada said the plane was carrying "approximately 72 passengers and four crew members," at the time of the crash.
The airline said it was "deeply saddened" by the death of the two pilots, offering condolences to "the entire Jazz community and their families."
Air Canada crash passenger describes what happened
Clément Lelièvre, a French national who was also a passenger on board the flight, said the pilots likely did what they could to save the lives of passengers.
"Just as the plane touched down, the pilot braked extremely hard," he told The Canadian Press.
"I don't know the circumstances, but I think he kind of saved our lives because he must have had incredible reflexes."
Authorities said more than 40 people were taken to hospital following the crash.
Flight attendant Solange Tremblay was among them. She was ejected with her seat from the plane and found by first responders near the wreckage, her daughter Sarah Lepine, told The Canadian Press.
Lepine said she spoke to her mother on Monday morning before Tremblay went in for surgery, with multiple fractures in her right leg.
"It's a miracle she is alive," Lepine told the newswire in a direct message exchange.
Cabot, a New Yorker, concurred that the flight attendant's survival seemed incredible, based on the amount of damage to the front end of the plane.
Like Lelièvre, Cabot said the pilots "did the absolute best they could and I just, I'm forever going be thankful for that."
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