While some details are still emerging, this doesn’t look good at all…
Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 & fire truck have major accident
At around 11:40PM on Sunday, March 22, 2026, an Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 and a fire truck collided on runway 4 at New York LaGuardia Airport (LGA). The plane belonging to Air Canada’s regional subsidiary was just landing on runway 4 from Montreal Airport (YUL).
The CRJ-900 ended up with its nose in the air, with the fire truck barely identifiable, and the plane’s cockpit largely destroyed. Air Canada’s CRJ-900s have 76 seats, with a crew of four (including two pilots and two flight attendants).
Following the incident, LaGuardia Airport was closed, given rescue efforts. My thoughts are with those involved in this accident, as there are reports of critical injuries, especially among firefighters. I’m also thinking about the pilots, because that cockpit situation doesn’t look good either.
How did this LaGuardia Airport accident happen?
To state the obvious, both planes and ground vehicles need permission in order to move around airports, given what congested spaces they are. So what exactly happened here? It would appear that this was an air traffic control error.
Listening to air traffic control audio from the accident, while the Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 was landing on runway 4, the air traffic controller also gave the fire truck permission to cross the runway.
The fire truck had requested permission from the tower controller to cross the runway — “Truck 1 and company, LaGuardia tower, requesting to cross 4 at delta.” The air traffic controller granted that permission — “Truck 1 and company, cross 4 at delta.”
After a short while, the controller realized the error — “stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, Truck 1, stop, stop, Truck 1, stop.” Unfortunately at that point it was too late, though, and the plane and the fire truck had collided.
Ugh, for all the close calls we see, here’s one that didn’t end well. Reports suggests that the controller was working alone. Admittedly LaGuardia isn’t that busy overnight, but air traffic controllers certainly have stressful jobs, and even a small mistake can have major consequences, as we’re seeing here.
Bottom line
An Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 and a fire truck collided on a LaGuardia runway, after an air traffic controller accidentally cleared the fire truck onto the runway while the other plane was landing. The scenes from the accident look awful, especially of the fire truck, and there are apparently critical injuries.
My thoughts are with those involved and their families, and I’m hoping for as few serious injuries and fatalities as possible. I also feel bad for the controller making an honest mistake — I can’t imagine how he’s feeling right now. Air traffic controllers have really gotten the short end of the stick in recent years, in terms of an immense workload due to short staffing. Of course at some point that’s going to impact performance.
What do you make of this LaGuardia accident?