Air Canada jet collides with ground vehicle at New York airport – Al Jazeera

Airport is closed and flights diverted after the aircraft operated by Jazz Aviation strikes a firefighting truck on runway.

At least two people have been killed when an Air Canada Express flight from Montreal struck a ground vehicle while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, according to several United States media outlets. The airport has been closed and flights diverted.

Kathryn Garcia, the executive ⁠director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said 32 of the 41 people who were injured had been released on Monday while nine remained in hospital with “serious injuries”. Those injured included passengers, crew members and the two officers on the fire truck. Both officers remained hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.

The aircraft, operated by Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, struck a firefighting truck on Runway 4 about 11:40pm on Sunday (03:40 GMT on Monday) as the vehicle drove to a separate incident, the Port Authority said.

A preliminary passenger list showed 76 people on board Flight AC8646, including four crew members, Jazz Aviation said in a statement.

The CRJ-900 aircraft ⁠struck the vehicle at a speed of 39 kilometres per hour (24 miles per hour), the flight tracking website Flightradar24 said.

“The airport is currently closed to facilitate the response and allow for a thorough investigation,” the Port Authority said in a statement to the AFP news agency.

Emergency response protocols were “immediately activated”, it said.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ground stop for all departures to LaGuardia due to the aircraft emergency with the airport closure in effect until 05:30 GMT. The probability of an extension was listed as high.

In a separate notice to airmen, the FAA said ⁠the airport could be shut until 18:00 GMT.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it had sent a “go team” to the scene to investigate the collision.

LaGuardia’s website showed arriving ⁠planes had been diverted to other airports or returned to their point of origin.

New York’s Emergency Management warned people to “expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays & emergency personnel” near the major transport hub in the borough of Queens.

“Use alternate routes,” it said on X.

LaGuardia had already been suffering from flight disruptions due to poor weather, the airport said on X.

Passengers were also waiting longer to pass through security due to “staffing impacts” from a federal funding lapse, it said last week.

LaGuardia is New York’s third busiest airport, serving 33.5 million passengers in 2024, according to Port Authority figures.

Deadly air crashes in the US in recent years include a collision between a passenger jet and an army helicopter near Washington, DC, in January 2025 that killed 67 people.