Two pilots are dead, dozens of people are injured and New York’s LaGuardia airport is closed Monday after an Air Canada Express jet collided with a fire truck on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia airport late on Sunday, officials said.
An Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members when it collided with the vehicle just before 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, Kathryn Garcia, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said at a news conference. The Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle was responding to another aircraft operated by United Airlines, which had reported an issue with odor, Garcia said.
Jazz Aviation, which operates as Air Canada Express, confirmed the incident involved a flight headed to LaGuardia from Montreal in a statement overnight. Visible damage to the nose of the plane, which was tilted upwards, could be seen in photos of the crash site.
Garcia said 41 passengers and crew were transported to the hospital. Thirty-two of them have been released, while others have “serious injuries.” Among the injured are the two officers who were aboard the fire truck, both of whom remain hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.
The airport will be closed until at least 2 p.m., Garcia said. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is at the scene and will be leading the investigation. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration will send a team to support the NTSB investigation.
“Our prayers this morning are with the families impacted by the ground collision at LaGuardia,” Duffy said on social media.
More than 540 flights canceled at LaGuardia
About 543 flights into or out of the airport have been canceled on Monday, according to tracking website FlightAware.
New York City’s emergency notification system said people could expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays and emergency personnel near the airport. Entrances and exits to and from LaGuardia in Queens have since reopened but emergency officials warned travelers to “expect residual delays.”
The closure of one of New York’s busiest airports comes amid travel disruptions caused by the partial government shutdown. Absences among Transportation Security Administration workers reached their highest level over the weekend since the partial shutdown began five weeks ago, leaving tens of thousands of workers without pay, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
LaGuardia served more than 30 million annual passengers in 2025, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and a wide range of U.S. airlines operate at the airport.
Collision is one of many recent aviation incidents
According to the FAA, there have been 97 runway incursions in January this year, compared to 133 incidents during the same period last year.
The collision at LaGuardia comes after a year-long investigation into the January 2025 collision over the Potomac River between an American Airlines regional jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter that killed 67 people.
In November, a UPS cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff in Louisville, Kentucky, killing 15 people, including all three crew members on board the cargo plane and 12 people on the ground.
Contributing: Reuters; Lillian Metzmeier, Jeanine Santucci, Thao Nguyen and Charles Ventura; USA TODAY NETWORK
