Air Canada Flight Attendant Thrown 330 Feet Still Strapped in Seat Survives
New York: In a remarkable survival story emerging from a deadly runway collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, an Air Canada flight attendant was hurled approximately 330 feet from the aircraft while remaining secured in her jump seat.
The incident occurred late Sunday when an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 jet, operating as flight AC8646 from Montreal with 72 passengers and four crew members on board, struck a fire truck while landing. The crash claimed the lives of both the pilot and co-pilot and left several others injured.
According to reports, the fire truck was crossing the active runway shortly before midnight after being cleared to respond to another aircraft that had aborted takeoff due to a reported strange odour. Surveillance footage captured the moment the plane slammed into the vehicle, propelling both across the tarmac.
Air traffic control recordings obtained by media outlets revealed a controller warning the flight about the approaching truck and then urgently instructing, “Stop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop, truck 1, stop.” Roughly 20 minutes later, the same controller acknowledged, “We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.”
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The lead flight attendant, identified as Solange Tremblay, was seated in her jump seat behind the cockpit during landing. Upon impact, her seat was ejected more than 100 metres (about 330 feet) from the wreckage. First responders found her still strapped in, conscious but suffering multiple fractures to one leg. She is expected to undergo surgery.
Her daughter, Sarah Lepine, spoke exclusively to Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles, describing the event as “a total miracle.” Lepine said, “She was still strapped to her seat,” and added, “I’m still trying to understand how all this happened, but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her.”
The two pilots, Antoine Forest (aged 30) and MacKenzie Gunther, were both based in Canada and at early stages of their careers. Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, described the loss as “an absolute tragedy.”
Passenger Rebecca Liquori recounted the chaos, saying the jet encountered turbulence on approach, followed by hard braking and a loud boom. “Everybody just jolted out of their seats. People hit their heads. People were bleeding,” she told reporters. Passengers assisted one another in evacuating via the wing, with many expressing relief at surviving what should have been a routine one-hour flight.
The crash highlights ongoing challenges in US aviation, including shortages of air traffic controllers and security personnel amid a partial government shutdown that has caused delays and long queues at airports nationwide.
Investigations by relevant authorities are underway to determine the exact sequence of events that led to the fatal collision.