Air Canada Express Jazz flight AC8646, a CRJ-900 regional jet from Montreal to New York LaGuardia, collided with a fire truck shortly after landing around 11:45 p.m. on Sunday night. The pilot and co-pilot were killed, and there were numerous injuries.
The fire truck was trying to cross runway 4 to reach United Airlines flight 2384, the 9:15 p.m. to Chicago which had rejected two takeoffs and declared an emergency reportedly due to an odor that was making cabin crew ill. It collided with the Jazz flight on runway 4.
There were 72 passengers and 4 crew on board. It had just landed and was rolling out when it struck the vehicle, causing severe nose and cockpit damage at approximately 24 miles per hour.
Here’s TRUCK 1 at LGA – LaGuardia on its side after being struck by the CRJ on runway 04. 🙏 pic.twitter.com/0mCgvUoWSM
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) March 23, 2026
The fire truck had been cleared to cross Runway 4 at Taxiway Delta, and the tower started urgently telling “Truck 1” to stop just before impact.
Here’s air traffic control as it happened:
- Stop, stop, stop, truck 1, stop, stop, stop. Stop, truck 1, stop. Stop, truck 1, stop. Delta 2603, go around, runway heading 2000. Jazz 646. Jazz 646, I see you collide with vehicle here. I know you can’t move. The vehicles are responding to you now.
And this exchange between the controller and the Frontier Airlines 10:55 p.m. flight to Miami that’s now delayed until Monday afternoon:
- Frontier 4195: “That wasn’t good to watch.”
Controller: “Yeah, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to ’em I stopped, and we were dealing with an emergency earlier, and I messed up.”
Frontier 4195: “No, man. You did the best you could.”
A fire truck was trying to cross runway 04 at LGA – LaGuardia Airport this evening to get to a United Airlines flt 2384 that had 2 rejected takeoffs. The United 737 Max declared an emergency on the ground and requested fire trucks due to a strange odor that was making the flight… https://t.co/KJ7wJIgyvz pic.twitter.com/w3e6DhvUfH
— Thenewarea51 (@thenewarea51) March 23, 2026
We’ll have to wait for the investigation to determine whether there was controller error, the vehicle not clearing quickly enough or stopping in time after the rescission, or some combination. Weather was marginal but not terrible, wiht light rain and mist and low ceilings.
Aviation watchdog JonNYC explains that it appears this controller was on his own managing LaGuardia traffic overnight.
My *impression* is that LGA has only one controller overnight, and -if- that impression is correct, somewhat unusual among larger airports, I think. Then again, there’s only 7 arrivals scheduled between 1200 and 0600. So not much need for more than one controller, generally…
— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) March 23, 2026
The airport was immediately closed and the FAA issued a ground stop for an hour and a half, then cancelled the stop 40 minutes later. Airport operations were expected to remain suspended until 2 p.m. on Monday, and some reports suggest later, but that closure is not appearing on the FAA site. At least 18 flights were diverted or returned to their gate.
Queens LGA Crash Box 2-2-37: Air Canada flight arriving at LaGuardia Airport crashed into a rescue truck on Sunday night — leaving at least two Port Authority cops seriously injured, according to sources. Emergency vehicles swarmed Runway 4 after a regional jet heading from… pic.twitter.com/BQJynM9BAl
— David Burns 🇺🇸🗽🇺🇸 (@FD4D) March 23, 2026
Two Port Authority first responders on the truck suffered broken bones and were expected to recover. Injury totals are all over the place at this point, some suggesting 11 passengers were hospitalized with suggestions of ‘dozens’ harmed in total.
Heartbreaking. We can only hope that positive change is the outcome. Prayers for everyone.
A CRJ-900 strikes a firetruck at 24 mph and both the pilot and copilot are dead?
For some reason I feel that if an L10-11 can roller coaster its way through windshear, hopping up & down along the north end of DFW, taking the scenic tour of 114, decapitating a motorist and crashing into a water tank, leaving passengers in the tail section to survive, it just seems a bit strange that these two pilots would die in what surely pales in comparison to the Delta flight 191.
24 mph is about 1/2 the speed of the fastest elevator in the world.
Something doesn’t add up.
We take so much for granted. If ATC is taking responsibility this early, that’s unique, though I’m sure there will be a thorough investigation after the fact. Regardless, it’s tragic, and I feel for the pilots families and hope for a speedy recovery for injured passengers. Have taken that route (YUL-LGA) with Air Canada; it’s an older aircraft (tiny bins, even for a CRJ). There was rain in NYC Sunday evening. LGA probably closed much of Monday. This combined with TSA madness isn’t a great start to the week.