All but four passengers were injured The fatal collision on Sunday Between an Air Canada plane and a fire truck have been released from hospital, the airline said Wednesday, as crews began recovering the mangled plane from the runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
A spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said in a statement to CBS News that they are working to reopen the runway “no later than Friday morning.”
“With the removal of the aircraft and truck, we are reviewing the condition of the runway to ensure it complies with FAA regulations and can be reopened safely,” the spokesman said, adding that the truck was moved to a “safe location as evidence.” in the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the crash.
In its own statement on Wednesday, Air Canada said the plane’s wreckage had been released by authorities. Crews would move the plane to a secure hangar “as soon as it is safe,” it said.
Air Canada added that it is cooperating with the NTSB’s investigation.
As of Monday, much of the wreckage lay on the tarmac, blocking access to one of LaGuardia’s two runways at one of the country’s busiest airports.
Just before 5 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday, airport workers began towing away the remains. Two large tow trucks working in tandem also righted the badly damaged fire truck, which had been lying on its side since the accident.
Crews remove the wreckage of an Air Canada plane from the runway at LaGuardia Airport following a fatal collision with a fire truck earlier this week in New York, March 25, 2026. / Photo credit: Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images
(Lokman Vural Elibol/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The tail of the jet was lifted onto a large transport truck, which was then pulled by two vehicles driving side by side using long tethers. Earlier in the day, much of the nose debris destroyed in the collision was cut away by work crews. During the tow, the aircraft was supported in the middle by its own landing gear, which appeared to be intact.
Two pilots were killed in the crash. Around 40 people were treated in surrounding hospitals for various injuries, some of them serious. Further details about the four people who remained hospitalized were not immediately available.
The plane coming from Montreal had 76 people on board including crew when it collided with the fire truck that had driven onto the runway. Seconds before the collision, an air traffic controller had cleared the truck to cross the runway.
After the collision, many occupants managed to escape the damaged aircraft, including a flight attendant who survived after being thrown onto the tarmac while still strapped into her seat.
The Two pilots have been identified as Captain Antoine Forest and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther. At least one passenger, Clément Lelièvre, praised their “incredible reflexes” in saving his life and those of others, noting that they braked extremely hard just as the plane was landing.
The two Port Authority Police Department firefighters in the truck survived.
In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said the air traffic controller who directed traffic during the crash was interviewed by NTSB investigators late Tuesday evening. Homendy also said that interviews were conducted on Wednesday with the other air traffic controller who was in the tower at the time, as well as the air traffic controller in charge, the air traffic controller and the operations manager.
She told CNN that the workload of the two air traffic controllers who were on duty at the time of the collision was “concerning.”
“In this case, we saw that there was quite a heavy workload for these two air traffic controllers because there was an emergency and they had to handle multiple flights, so it was a heavy workload for them,” Homendy said.
A CBS News Review by Dozens A series of reports dating back to 2000 found that pilots had complained for years about misunderstandings from air traffic controllers and close contacts with ground vehicles at LaGuardia Airport. A review of the Federal Aviation Administration’s official database of runway collapses found at least 132 incidents since 2000, including 17 involving maintenance, snow and other support vehicles that were on runways when they shouldn’t have been.
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