Both pilots were killed after an Air Canada Express regional jet collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport late on Sunday, closing the airport, authorities and U.S. media said, in an incident set to draw scrutiny following a string of recent aviation lapses.
NBC News, which reported the deaths, said dozens of people were injured in the incident.
The Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane, operated by its regional partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal, based on a preliminary passenger list that remained subject to confirmation. Jazz is owned by Chorus Aviation.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was deploying a team of technical experts to investigate the incident.
Fire truck was cleared to cross runway
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said the firefighting vehicle was responding to a separate incident when it was struck by the aircraft at the airport’s Runway 4, without elaborating further.
Minutes before the incident, the airport’s air traffic control audio broadcast from LiveATC.net indicated that a United Airlines flight had declared an emergency due to an odor reported onboard. Controllers told the aircraft that fire trucks were available on site.
A second transmission then shows a fire truck was cleared to cross Runway 4, where the collision occurred, at taxiway ‘Delta”.
Moments later, according to the ATC audio, a controller can be heard saying: “Stop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop, truck 1, stop.”
NBC News, citing sources, said the fire truck was manned by police officers. It had earlier said a sergeant and an officer had broken limbs and were in stable condition at a hospital.
Aircraft’s nose and cockpit area damaged
The aircraft struck the fire vehicle at a speed of about 24 miles per hour (39 kph), according to flight tracking website Flightradar24, which last recorded data at 11:37 p.m. ET (0337 GMT).
Photos taken by Reuters after the accident showed visible damage to the nose of the plane, which was tilted upward.
Authorities and emergency agencies did not offer any immediate comments on deaths or injuries.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the airport was expected to remain shut until 2 p.m. ET (1800 GMT) on Monday.
Flightradar24 said 18 flights had been diverted to other airports, mostly in the New York area, or returned to their point of origin.
Air Canada referred Reuters to Jazz’s statement and said it was aware of the incident. The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
New York City’s emergency notification system said people could expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays and emergency personnel near the airport.
LaGuardia served over 30 million annual passengers in 2025, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and a wide range of U.S. airlines operate at the airport.
Recent incidents
According to the FAA, there have been 97 runway incursions in January this year, compared to 133 incidents during the same period last year.
A bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers last month proposed legislation to address 50 aviation safety recommendations issued after a year-long investigation into the January 2025 collision between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people.
Last year, a UPS cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky, killing seven and injuring 11 on the ground.