Plane collides with emergency vehicle on LaGuardia runway in New York

“Emergency intervention protocols were immediately activated.” The public agency managing LaGuardia Airport in New York announced Sunday night that a plane, a CRJ-900 operated by Jazz Aviation on behalf of Air Canada, “collided with a Port Authority emergency response and fire fighting vehicle that was responding to another incident.”

No official toll has been given at this stage regarding possible victims. But according to NBC news channel, there are four injured, including the pilot and co-pilot, and two passengers of the vehicle involved in the accident. LaGuardia Airport in New York has been closed until further notice, according to airport authorities who have warned the public to “expect cancellations, road closures, traffic slowdowns, and the presence of emergency personnel” near this major transportation hub. “Take alternative routes,” they recommended on X.

Many rescue vehicles on site

According to Jazz Aviation, the plane landed in New York after taking off from Montreal with 72 passengers and four crew members on board. Photos from AFP show an Air Canada Express plane at night on a runway, with the cockpit and front part heavily damaged. From these pictures, many rescue vehicles also seemed to have been dispatched on site.

The American Civil Aviation Authority (FAA) had announced earlier the closure of the airport due to an “emergency.” It specified that the likelihood of this measure being extended was “high.” Flight tracking website FlightRadar24 also indicated that the plane collided with the rescue vehicle during landing. It was “taxiing on the runway when it collided with the vehicle crossing its path,” according to FlightRadar24.