The accident occurred this Monday when an Air Canada CRJ-900 regional aircraft, coming from Montreal, had just landed at LaGuardia airport. At that moment, the aircraft collided with a fire truck that was attending to another emergency on the runway.
The impact occurred at an approximate speed of 39 kilometers per hour, enough to completely destroy the nose of the plane.
Two dead and several injured
According to initial information, the crash has left at least two people dead and two injured.
The plane was carrying:
- 76 passengers
- 4 crew members
For now, the existence of victims among the passengers has not been confirmed, which indicates that the worst part of the impact would have occurred in the frontal area of the aircraft.
Video and images: the state of the plane after the crash
The images disseminated from the scene show the extent of the impact: the nose of the plane completely destroyed and a wide deployment of emergency teams on the runway.
Airport closed and flights diverted
The accident has forced the total closure of LaGuardia Airport, one of New York's main air hubs.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has confirmed that the airfield will remain closed for several hours, flights are being diverted and chain cancellations are expected. LaGuardia handles nearly 30 million passengers a year, so the operational impact is immediate.
Without clear causes for now
The authorities have not yet determined what caused the collision.
The initial investigations should clarify why the truck was in the plane's path, if there was a coordination failure on the runway or if it is a human or technical error
A unusual accident on track
Accidents on the runway between aircraft and emergency vehicles are infrequent, but especially delicate due to the complexity of simultaneous operations in high-density airports.
The LaGuardia case puts the focus on safety protocols in one of aviation's most controlled environments.