An Air Canada flight struck a fire truck while landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York late Sunday night, leaving the pilot and co-pilot dead and dozens of others injured.
The airport, one of the busiest in New York, had to shut down for a period following the crash.
Around 11:40 p.m., a Jezz Aviation-operated flight for Air Canada hit a Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle that had been responding to another situation on the field.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members on board at the time.
Speaking at a Monday press conference, Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia said 41 people from the plane were taken to hospital; 32 of them have already been released.
Two firefighters who were inside the truck were also hospitalized and are said to be in stable condition.
Afterward, passengers were guided to Air Canada’s ticket area, where they were able to meet up with family members. Garcia said one of the passengers was an unaccompanied minor.
The airport stayed closed until Monday afternoon while investigators examined the scene and worked to determine what caused the collision.
Images and footage from the scene showed the plane’s nose was badly damaged.
Jazz later confirmed the aircraft was Air Canada Flight 8638, which had departed from Montreal.
The Air Canada flight departed from Trudeau International Airport in Montreal just after 10:30 p.m. and touched down at LaGuardia roughly an hour later, according to flight tracking site FlightRadar24.
Moments before the collision, the aircraft was moving at around 130 miles per hour.
The air traffic controller can be heard continuing to do his job after the collision, though he sounds clearly shaken; alarms could be heard oging off in the background.
He was later heard telling the Air Canada crew that assistance was on the way, but by that point the front of the aircraft had already been torn apart. The pilots were unlikely to have survived.
Later in the recording, the controller is heard saying “I messed up,” while another pilot tries to reassure him.
