Air Canada Flight 8646...

Waiting...
Toronto, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Horrifying news out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, as an Air Canada CRJ900 jet landing after a flight from Montreal late last night slammed into a fire truck at over 200 km/h.* Both the pilot and first officer were killed, and dozens were injured.

Preliminary reports suggest air traffic control had cleared the truck to cross the active runway to deal with a United flight that had aborted takeoff due to a strange odour on-board.

Audio suggests controllers, after realizing their error, desperately attempted to get the truck to stop, and to divert inbound flights from landing, but to no avail.

We have flown this exact aircraft type many times over the years, always comfortable in the knowledge that air travel is, by the numbers, remarkably safe.

But statistics mean little in moments like this, and the industry - and the political stakeholders who provide the context within which it operates - will doubtless be forced to look inward to understand how the unthinkable can be allowed to happen.

#ldnont #canada #flight #ac8646 #aircanada

* UPDATE - 9:45 a.m. ET: Note there has been significant variation in the plane’s reported speed before impact. CNN initially reported the plane was doing 130 mph before the collision - which was the basis for my initial note.

Other reports suggest speeds were much lower: around 39 km/h.

WxSpotter Alex shared this from publicly available flight data: “FR24 granular data, showed speed around 110 at 04 Delta, then rapid deceleration and turn into 04 Echo...”