‘Stop, truck one, stop!’ – How collision with plane killed pilot, co-pilot

2026-03-23 - 16:14

Moments before an Air Canada Express plane collided with a firetruck on the runway of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, a traffic controller cleared the truck to cross the runway and then urgently ordered it to halt, a recording showed. The collision Sunday night killed the pilot and co-pilot, and 41 people on board were taken to the hospital, officials said. The plane, operated by Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, struck the firetruck on Runway 4 at around 11:40 pm as the truck drove to a separate incident. Below is a transcript of the exchange: Driver: “Truck one and company, LaGuardia Tower. Requesting to cross four at Delta.” Controller: “Truck one and company, cross four at Delta.” Driver: “Truck one and company crossing four at Delta.” Controller: “Frontier 4195, stop there please. (Pause.) Stop, stop, stop, truck one, stop, stop, stop. Stop, truck one, stop! Stop, truck one, stop.” (Alarm goes off.) “Jazz 646. Jazz 646, I see you collided with vehicle. (Inaudible) Hold position. I know he can’t move. Vehicles are responding to you now.” After further dialogue. Second controller: “Man, that wasn’t good to watch.” First controller: “Yeah, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to my staff. And we were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.” Second controller: “No man, you did the best you could.” Vanguard News