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In what is being hailed as an “absolute miracle,” a flight attendant survived being ejected from an Air Canada flight after it collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night.
The plane, identified as a Jazz Aviation flight for Air Canada from Montreal, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members when it collided with a fire truck on the way down, according to officials.
The fire truck was landing on the tarmac just before midnight after receiving permission to respond to another aircraft reporting a boarding issue, authorities said. The sound of the air traffic control captured the controller which immediately warns the car to stop before the crash.
The impact severed the cockpit, killing the pilot and his assistant, both based in Canada, and injuring dozens of others. About 40 passengers and crew, as well as two people in the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, officials said.
AN AIR CANADA JET HIT A CAR, FORCING THE CLOSURE OF NEW YORK’S LAGUARDIA AIRPORT.
LR: Officials investigate the site, Monday, March 23, 2026, where an Air Canada plane came to rest after colliding with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport, shortly after landing Sunday night in New York; Flight attendant Solange Tremblay. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig; Facebook/Solange Tremblay)
Flight attendant Solange Tremblay was still strapped into her seat when she was ejected from the plane when it crashed, according to her family.
Tremblay’s daughter, Sarah Lepine, told Canadian news channel TVA Nouvelles that what happened to her mother was “a complete miracle.”
He said his mother broke one of her legs multiple times and would need surgery, but she was fine.
AIR CANADA PASSENGER SAYS PILOT ‘DID THE BEST THEY COULD,’ DESCRIBE DEADLY IMPACT
“I’m still trying to understand how this all happened,” said Lepine, “but he has an angel watching over him.”
An Air Canada Express CRJ-900 lands on the runway after colliding with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York, March 23, 2026. (Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images)
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said Tremblay’s survival is admirable given the extent of the damage, especially to the front of the plane.
A former state accident investigator, Guzzetti told The Associated Press that Tremblay may have been helped into a four-point seat used by crew members.
“The flight attendant’s seat is a folding jump seat that is attached to the wall, which is the same wall used by the cockpit,” said Guzzetti.
Emergency personnel work near a downed car following a collision between a car and an Air Canada Express plane at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York, on March 23, 2026. (REUTERS/Bing Guan)
“It’s a solid seat,” he added. “It’s designed to withstand almost any passenger seat crash because you need a flight attendant to help passengers get out of the plane after a crash.”
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National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators are examining the interaction between air traffic control and ground vehicles as a key focus of the investigation. Officials said the runway is expected to remain closed for days as crews sort through large amounts of debris and analyze flight records that have been recovered.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
