A passenger jet from Air Canada Express slammed into a fire truck on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport in New York late Sunday evening, bringing all operations at the busy travel center to a standstill.
Photographs released by AFP revealed major destruction to the front fuselage and pilot area of the aircraft that had flown in from Montreal, positioned on the runway amid numerous rescue units with activated emergency lights.
Officials have remained silent so far on whether any of the fire service personnel or the 76 individuals estimated to be aboard sustained harm.
The New York emergency management Authority and New Jersey declared, “The airport is currently closed to facilitate the response and allow for a thorough investigation.”
The regional carrier Jazz Aviation, which partners with Air Canada, confirmed the CRJ-900 plane operating as flight AC8646 struck the firefighting apparatus on Runway 4 shortly before midnight as crews handled a different emergency call.
Authorities confirmed that “emergency response protocols had been immediately activated.”
A preliminary roster released by the airline listed 76 total people on the flight, among them four staff members.
Federal aviation regulators directed a complete grounding of departures and arrivals, warning of a high likelihood the interruption would last for an extended period.
Data from FlightRadar24 indicated the jet was proceeding along the runway surface at the time the rescue truck entered its trajectory.
New York emergency officials cautioned residents to “expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays & emergency personnel” and urged the use of different paths near the site.
The facility was already contending with significant schedule interruptions caused by bad weather, according to an earlier update on the social platform X.
Travellers faced additional delays at checkpoints because of workforce shortages linked to a federal budget shortfall announced the previous week.
Positioned within the Queens section of New York City, LaGuardia serves as the metro area’s third most active airport and handled 33.5 million passengers throughout 2024.
It wrapped up a major $8 billion overhaul last year that introduced modern terminals along with improved roadways.
This latest occurrence adds to a string of concerning aviation events across the country in recent times.
One notable tragedy involved a passenger airliner and an army helicopter crashing near Washington in January of the previous year, resulting in 67 fatalities.
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