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.
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.
This was just off runway 4 (approached from the south). If you’ve ever flown into LGA, landing can feel ‘abrupt.’ Like, touchdown, slam on breaks, quick exit to taxiway, sometimes at seemingly a higher speed than normal (because, well, if you miss it, you end up in the river or Grand Central Parkway). If the fire truck was in that 4-22 taxiway, I can see how the accident may have happened. Shouldn’t have. But I can imagine the speed, relative confusion, and the unfortunate impact. It’s still a relatively tight space, even after recent renovations to the airport.
This is heartbreaking. It is also a prime example of everything wrong with America. Plenty of money to fund illegal wars to overthrow dictators, strangle island nations into submission, and steal oil from the Middle East, but there’s never enough money to pay people who do jobs in this country many take for granted. There’s never money to fix healthcare. Improve education. Curb gun violence meaningfully. The country is broken, failing, miserable, and well on its way to financial and economic ruin. Sadly this crash exemplifies the decline and fall of the nation.
This feels eerily similar to the helicopter/plane collision at DCA. Air traffic control is obviously broken and there should be a clean bipartisan bill to reform/modernize it. This should be a non-political slam dunk.
@Pat — At least, for now, the President hasn’t come out and blamed women or brown people (remember the anti-woke, anti-DEI tropes), like after that tragedy in DC. Thank goodness few have sought to politicize what is simply a tragedy. This wasn’t Republicans or Democrats causing this. Yes, there should be bipartisan improvements to ATC and much more in our society.
@1990 – come on man, this is partisan. Your party is not funding the governmentt.
@LadyOlives – Not paying people and educating people – look to one certain political party. Also I see you mentioned the Middle East, but left out Ukraine? Was that just a coincidence?
It is absurd that our country accepts as normal only one controller working alone on an overnight shift at any top airport. Just awful. Personally flew into LGA yesterday afternoon, but this could happen anytime, anywhere. We need bipartisan support for ATC because we need highly qualified people to want to work as ATC professionals. We need to remove the threat of shutdowns from ATC salaries because we need highly qualified people to want to work as ATC professionals.
@Michael Mainello, you must be an imbecile from Staten Island.
@Michael Mainello — FAA/ATC is not at issue during this 2026 partial-shutdown (DHS, TSA, etc. is, and they didn’t cause this collision at all). Like with AA5342, this is a tragic accident, not a partisan issue. Nice try, though.
@Peter — Glad you made it back safely, friend. I flew EWR on Friday and JFK on Sunday. But you’re right, this could’ve been any of us. Many of us who frequent the travel blogs take these routes, airlines, and airports, regularly. Wish we’d see more collective empathy and support during times like these.
Gary,
Will you be calling for replacement privatized ATC workers at lower pay since “gubment workers are baaaaaad”?
Government TSA workers made me take my shoes off…..privatize them!!!!
Government ATC workers got me killed……privatize them!!!!
@lavanderialarry – Typical lib, no substance only spew bile.
@1990 – Yea, tell yourself that. When your party is to blame it is always “bipartisan”.
@Chris – the air traffic controllers union has called for privatization! The FAA air traffic organization is badly managed. They’ve done a terrible job with technology and maintenance. Government funding streams have been unreliable. And it’s simply not a best practice to have the same agency as regulator and service provider (i.e. regulating themselves) – that’s how you get total lack of accountability.
However this incident, at this point, hardly seems to be the basis on which to make policy recommendations. We’ll let the investigation proceed, eh?
@Michael Mainello — Please do blame the Democrats when you stub your toe. The irony is that it was you guys with the ‘TDS’ all-along; devotion to a mad-man who screwed nearly everyone over. And yet, even so, this particular tragic accident is still not his fault either.
@Michael Mainello
The guy who claims Jan 6th was totally peaceful is lecturing others?
@1990 – Your programming is so locked in you can’t even see that your party is blocking funding and when a tragic accident happens it is not your actions that caused it. Immature and dangerous thinking. (thinking is being generous)
Stupid: Adjective
1) Slow of Mind. Obtuse.
2) Michael Mainello
Agree with 1990, all we know is this was a tragic accident …..the political finger pointing is pointless and counter productive. But it is a function of the leadership we are suffering from in this Country…..and not just in the White House and not just one party.
@ Catman – Go look for YouTube videos on 25 mph test crashes. It’s enough to cause this kind of damage to an aircraft, and a collision at that speed can most definitely be fatal for anyone unrestrained in the front of a vehicle.
@Michael Mainello
I guess your limited source of news did not tell you that Dems in Congress have tried to carve out special money to fund TSA but the mad-man in the high chair said “no”.
We need less “I messed up” and more “Guilty, your honor” in our culture.
That ATC was in a really bad spot with the United declaring an emergency on the ground and everything else going on. On the audio, I never heard the fire truck being given clearance to cross an active runway.
Meanwhile, there’s no evidence of ICE actually helping the TSA. They’re just standing around, taking up space.
@Andy -. Since it just starts today I guess you’re right.
@WileyDog – I am well aware, but that is not how the budget works. Just because you throw a fit doesn’t mean you get your way. Nice try.,
@WileyDog — Welp, maybe @Tim Dunn is actually right here. Because, but-for United’s apparent failure to maintain its aircraft, immediately preceding this tragedy, there probably would not have been a fire truck dispatched… just sayin… Tim… you could be onto something… @MaxPower, @rebel, @Julie, etc., your pro-‘friendly skies’ rebuttal?
There are reports (just googling the news) stating that the Air Canada Express plane was traveling over 100mph. That makes sense as traveling 25-30mph would not total the aircraft that way.
1990
WileyDog picked up on the same thing I noted.
The UA pilots sounded quite panicked in the need to address a “fume issue”
there were no statements saying that anyone had passed out or ill.
There were fumes and the UA pilots said they needed to return to any gate or potentially evacuate the aircraft.
ATC was trying to get the fire department to bring air stairs to the plane – audio shows them working phones while trying to manage landing traffic.
It is very much valid to ask if the level of urgency by the UA crew was appropriate and if the controller was unnecessarily distracted by the UA situation that he neglected his most important job of managing the runway.
It seems like Air Canada has far more than its fair share of these sorts of mishaps, some of which narrowly avoided massive catastrophes like at SFO.
I fould Captain Steeve’s YouTube video today covering this incident helpful:
https://youtu.be/Hx-GFeErXD8?si=mgFQ9qalwMBwjpo7
I just saw the video and retract my earlier statement. There’s no way that plane was going anywhere below 50 mph when they collided.
Was just reading that the last fatality at LGA was also on March 22 (in 1992), USAir Flight 405. That’s tragic irony.
@Mike Hunt — Also the fire truck appears to be more than half-way across, angled away from the approaching aircraft, so they probably didn’t see it until they were getting tossed around. We’ve had dense mist/rain for the last 18+ hours in NYC (visibility has not been great since last night.)
FWIW Duffy just said at the end of his news conference that there was more than one controller in the tower.