Incident at LaGuardia Airport Involving Air Canada Flight
A flight attendant is being called a “complete miracle” after surviving being ejected from an Air Canada aircraft that collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late on Sunday night.
The aircraft, a Jazz Aviation flight that was operating for Air Canada, was landing at the time, carrying 72 passengers and four crew members. It collided with a fire engine that had received clearance to respond to another aircraft reporting issues shortly before midnight. An air traffic controller was heard warning the plane to stop just moments prior to the collision.
The force of the impact resulted in the destruction of the cockpit, resulting in the tragic deaths of the Canadian pilot and co-pilot, and left many others injured. Approximately 40 individuals, including passengers and crew, along with two members of the fire crew, were transported to hospitals for treatment.
Flight attendant Solange Tremblay was reportedly still secured in her seat when she was thrown from the plane during the crash, as her family has noted.
Her daughter, Sarah Lepine, expressed to TVA Nouvelles that her mother’s survival was indeed miraculous. While Tremblay suffered multiple fractures in one of her legs that require surgery, she is otherwise stable.
Lepine shared, “I’m still trying to understand how this happened. But she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her.”
Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety expert and former federal accident investigator, remarked on Tremblay’s unexpected survival given the crash’s severity. He mentioned that her seat had a robust four-point restraint system which likely contributed to her chance of survival. “The flight attendant seats are designed to be durable, able to withstand greater forces in crash situations than typical passenger seats,” he noted.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently looking into the events leading up to the collision, particularly examining the communication between air traffic control and ground vehicles. Officials anticipate that the affected runway will remain closed for several days as they clear debris and analyze flight data recorders.
