LaGuardia Airport is open but operating at reduced capacity following a collision late Sunday night that killed two Air Canada pilots.
At a press conference at the airport Monday afternoon, officials acknowledged what they called a “traumatizing” event for New York and U.S. and Canadian travelers and said an NTSB-led investigation is now underway.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani offered condolences to the families of the two pilots. Bedford remarked that the pilots were “two young men at the start of their career.”
“It’s an absolute tragedy we’re standing here with their loss,” he said.
An Air Canada Bombardier CRJ-900 hit a LaGuardia firefighting truck around 11:40 p.m. Sunday while attempting to land on Runway 4. The pilot and co-pilot were killed, and around 40 people, including two inside the truck, were hospitalized. Most have been released, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.
The airport was shut down until 2 p.m. Monday.
“It’s incredibly sad, it is troubling,” Duffy said. “We are working our hearts out to make sure when people travel by car, by rail, by air, they travel safely.”
NTSB teams are now on the scene, Duffy said, and staff from Transport Canada are on their way.
Without going into specifics, the secretary said the crash illustrated the importance of wearing a seatbelt on an airplane.
“As you saw from last night, they do save lives,” he said.
Duffy may have been referencing reports rescuers found a flight attendant strapped in her jumpseat outside the aircraft. She was injured and hospitalized but is expected to survive.
Mamdani noted that Sunday’s crash is the first fatal incident at LaGuardia in over 30 years.
Pressed for Details
Duffy declined to answer certain questions from reporters about the exact chain of events leading up to the crash, saying he did not want to “frontrun” the NTSB.
He did say that reports suggesting there was only one air traffic controller in the tower overseeing LaGuardia were wrong.
The airport has a target of 37 controllers, and there are currently 33, with seven in training, making LaGuardia a “very well staffed airport,” Duffy said.
He also noted that the FAA is in the process of training more controllers to fill gaps throughout the country.
Bedford offered more details about the night of the crash, saying there was moderate wind, mist, and fog. Visibility was about four miles.
The fire truck was responding to a United flight that experienced an aborted takeoff, he said.
Duffy said he expects LaGuardia to continue to operate at reduced capacity “for some time,” as the wreckage from the collision is still on the runway.
