Passengers from the Air Canada flight that crashed into a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York described the scene as “chaos” during the incident, which left both pilots dead but may have prevented even greater casualties.
Jack Cabot, a passenger, recounted how it felt like an ordinary flight until things took a drastic turn. “We landed hard, and then, just moments later, there was this incredible jolt,” he explained. The front of the plane was severely damaged in the collision.
The crash occurred just before 11:40 p.m., tragically claiming the lives of the two pilots and injuring 41 passengers, which led to the airport being closed for much of the following day.
Another passenger shared that, at the last second, the pilot may have attempted to pull back on the controls. “We just landed, and about 30 seconds later there was a sudden impact, and it felt like we were sliding sideways,” Brady Sego said in a Reddit account.
As of now, the identities of the deceased pilots have not been released, and the cause of the crash is still being investigated. Audio recordings from the control tower reveal a chaotic scene as air traffic controllers acknowledged the situation was “a mess.”
Images taken the morning after the accident showed the wrecked cockpit, marking a grim start to the day at this busy airport.
