An aircraft has crashed with a ground vehicle at New York’s LaGuardia airport, resulting in multiple casualties.
The incident occurred on the evening of 22 March as an Air Canada Express landed. A CRJ-900, the aircraft recorded speeds of 39kmph as it hit the firefighting vehicle, which was on the tarmac attending to a separate incident. Both pilots were killed and several people seriously injured. As a result, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced they would close until it was safe to resume operations. The airport serves as a regional hub and handles around 30 million passengers a year, causing significant disruption to aviation across the Americas.
Photographers captured severe damage to the nose of the CRJ-900 as a result of the incident. Recent years have seen a notable uplift in ground and airborne collisions across the US, which have largely been blamed on a shortage of air traffic personnel. In October 2025, LaGuardia was the scene of another incident where two regional Delta jets collided at a taxiway intersection. Clipped wings and scrapes between aircraft have also taken place at Chicago O’Hare and San Francisco airports in the past year.
The ATC shortage has been exacerbated by the current government shutdown, which means many air traffic controllers are working without pay. Reports suggest that the controller managing the Air Canada flight was simultaneously responsible for overseeing a fire risk on a United aircraft due to a lack of staff.
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