2 pilots were killed when an Air Canada Express Jet collided with a fire truck while landing at the LaGuardia Airport in NY late on March 22nd. As a result, the airport was closed for hours before reopening on Monday. The Air Canada Flight 8646, operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation, collided with the fire vehicle on Runway 4 during landing at approximately 11:40 local time.
The flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder were not damaged, says Chairwoman Jenniffer Homendy. They are sending the black boxes that were found on the plane to Washington for lab analysis. The plane carried 72 passengers and 4 crew members. 41 passengers and the crew were taken to hospitals. 32 have been released, but there were also serious injuries.
The Preliminary investigation suggested the accident had been caused by an overlapping series of failures stemming from staffing and technology problems. The fire truck crossed onto the runway where the jet was landing at around 11:40 pm, officials say. In the audio recordings, a person driving the fire truck asked and received permission to cross a runway, and in response, an air traffic control operator can be heard on the controller saying “stop, truck 1, stop!” It was cleared to cross the runway 20 seconds before the crash.
The two pilots have been credited with saving the lives of the 72 passengers and the two surviving crew members on the plane by quickly braking and minimizing the impact as the plane crashed into the truck as it was landing. One pilot, Forest, confirmed his death by a family member who wants to remain anonymous, to NBC News. Forest’s hometown paid tribute to him and offered condolences to his family. The other pilot, Gunther, also received condolences.
Both the driver and the passenger in the fire truck were injured. It is also still not clear how the crash occurred, but they are investigating the airline and the fire truck that was involved to find out the ultimate cause.
