A passenger aboard the Air Canada flight said the situation quickly spiraled after the collision. “The cockpit was destroyed, there was no one to talk to,” he said. “It was chaos, everyone was screaming.”
Footage of the crash on the runway at New York's LaGuardia Airport
He described how, in the absence of instructions, passengers took matters into their own hands.
“There were no instructions, so someone said, ‘Let’s get to the emergency exit, open the door and just jump out,’ and that’s what we did.”
The newly surfaced video shows the aircraft rolling on the runway before striking a fire truck that had entered the tarmac.
Air traffic control audio captures the final seconds before the crash, with a controller urgently warning the vehicle.
“Stop, stop, stop. Vehicle 1, stop, stop, stop.”
The vehicle did not halt, and the jet collided with it, killing both pilots and injuring dozens.
In a separate recording moments later, a controller is heard acknowledging a possible error.
“I messed up,” he said. “I tried to reach out … we were dealing with an emergency earlier.”
Another controller responded: “Nah, man, you did the best you could.”
Authorities are now investigating how both the aircraft and the emergency vehicle were cleared to operate on the same runway.
Preliminary findings indicate the fire truck had been responding to a separate incident involving another aircraft when the collision occurred.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said officials are examining whether broader systemic issues, including staffing and infrastructure, played a role.
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Passengers at LaGuardia Airport after their flight was canceled following the accident
(Photo: Charly Triballeau/ AFP)
“We’ve been modernizing our system, but we can’t fully modernize it until the Congress gives us the additional money,” Duffy said.
“It’s not a partisan issue … but they have to have the will to finish the funding.”
He cautioned that it is too early to determine whether improved systems would have prevented the crash.
“I’m not saying the crash would have been prevented,” he said, “but if we care about air travel safety, we need the best system in the world.”
Port Authority officials stressed that all runway movements require clearance from the control tower, underscoring the central role of air traffic control in the incident.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched a full investigation into the rare ground collision, which shut down one of the nation’s busiest airports and raised fresh concerns about safety and coordination on U.S. runways.