A terrible tragedy happened, and unfortunately there are fatalities. While I covered this earlier, I’d like to provide a bit of an update, based on the information that has come out in the hours following the accident.
Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 & fire truck have fatal accident
At around 11:40PM on Sunday, March 22, 2026, an Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 and a fire truck collided on runway 4 at New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA). The plane belonging to Air Canada’s regional subsidiary was just landing on runway 4 from Montreal Airport (YUL), and was moving around 100 miles per hour at the time of impact.
The CRJ-900 ended up with its nose in the air, and the plane’s cockpit largely destroyed. Meanwhile the fire truck ended up over in the grass and on its side, and was barely identifiable. Air Canada’s CRJ-900s have 76 seats, with a crew of four (including two pilots and two flight attendants). This particular flight had 72 passengers, so it was nearly full.
It has now been revealed that the captain and first officer both passed away, and some of the firefighters are critically injured. It remains to be seen how many serious injuries there are beyond that. My thoughts are with those onboard and their families, and in particular, with those who lost their lives. Following the incident, LaGuardia Airport was closed, given rescue efforts.
How did this LaGuardia Airport accident happen?
To state the obvious, both planes and ground vehicles need permission in order to move around airports, given what congested spaces they are. So what exactly happened here? It would appear that this was an air traffic control error.
Listening to air traffic control audio from the accident, while the Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 was landing on runway 4, the air traffic controller also gave the fire truck permission to cross the runway.
The fire truck had requested permission from the tower controller to cross the runway — “Truck 1 and company, LaGuardia tower, requesting to cross 4 at delta.” The air traffic controller granted that permission — “Truck 1 and company, cross 4 at delta.”
After a short while, the controller realized the error — “stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, Truck 1, stop, stop, Truck 1, stop.” Unfortunately at that point it was too late, though, and the plane and the fire truck had collided.
Ugh, for all the close calls we see, here’s one that didn’t end well. Reports suggests that the controller was working alone. Admittedly LaGuardia isn’t that busy overnight, but air traffic controllers certainly have stressful jobs, and even a small mistake can have major consequences, as we’re seeing here.
For added context, the controller was trying to assist with another emergency at the same time. United flight UA2384 was scheduled to fly to Chicago (ORD), and had two rejected takeoffs. The pilots of that flight declared an emergency, and requested fire trucks, so the air traffic controller seemed to be largely focused on that. In a comment to another pilot after the accident, the controller said “we were dealing with an emergency earlier, and I messed up.”
Bottom line
An Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 and a fire truck collided on a LaGuardia runway, after an air traffic controller accidentally cleared the fire truck onto the runway while the other plane was landing. He was busy dealing with another emergency. The scenes from the accident look awful, and it has been confirmed that the two pilots lost their lives, and firefighters are critically injured.
My thoughts are with those involved and their families, and I’m hoping for as few serious injuries and fatalities as possible. I also feel bad for the controller making an honest mistake — I can’t imagine how he’s feeling right now. Air traffic controllers have really gotten the short end of the stick in recent years, in terms of an immense workload due to short staffing. Of course at some point that’s going to impact performance. Never mind that he was dealing with another emergency.
What do you make of this LaGuardia accident?
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