NEW YORK — A Port Authority fire truck collided with Air Canada Express Flight 8646 on a runway at LaGuardia Airport on March 22, 2026, killing both pilots. The CRJ900 regional jet from Montreal was carrying 76 people when it struck the truck while landing on Runway 4.

The pilots killed were Antoine Forest, 30, and Mackenzie Gunther, 24. Two fire truck crew members were among 39 people taken to hospitals with injuries, six of whom were described as seriously injured. A flight attendant still strapped in her seat survived after being thrown onto the tarmac. Another flight attendant reported that the flight was normal until he felt an impact and that he attempted to call the pilots but received no response. It was the first deadly crash at LaGuardia in 34 years.

Flight 8646 was cleared to land on Runway 4 at 11:35 p.m. About two minutes later, 25 seconds before the crash, the fire crew asked to cross Runway 4. Five seconds after that request, with the jet about 100 feet above the ground, the air traffic controller cleared the fire truck to cross. The clearance came 12 seconds before the plane touched down, while runway warning lights that act as a stop sign for crossing traffic were still lit.

Nine seconds before the crash, the controller repeatedly told the fire crew, "Stop, stop, stop, stop. Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop, stop." One second after the final warning, the jet's landing gear touched down. A firefighter heard the controller's initial warning but did not know who it was for. The fire truck's turret operator then heard the controller say "Truck 1, stop, stop, stop" and realized the warning was for the truck to halt, but the truck was already on the runway. As the truck turned left, the turret operator saw the airplane's lights on the runway. The jet registered a speed of 104 mph just before the collision; the fire truck was traveling at about 30 mph.

The fire truck was leading a convoy of four fire trucks, a police car and a stair truck responding to an unusual odor that had made flight attendants feel ill in the cabin of an outbound United Airlines jet. None of the ground vehicles in the convoy were equipped with transponders. Without a transponder on the fire truck, the crash prevention system in the control tower could not reliably determine the truck's position, predict a potential conflict, or generate an audio or visual alert.

LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system that combines radar data with information from transponders in planes and ground vehicles. The ASDE-X system did not sound an alarm partly because the radar had trouble distinguishing closely spaced trucks and their targets intermittently merged on the display. Only two targets were displayed on the system just before the crash, even though there were seven vehicles.

Flight delays pushed the number of arrivals and departures after 10 p.m. the night of the crash to more than double what was scheduled. Two air traffic controllers were on duty in the tower, consistent with normal scheduling.