2 Pilots Killed In Air Canada Flight Crash Had Just Started Their Careers

Two pilots who were killed after an Air Canada Express plane collided with a fire truck while landing at New York's LaGuardia Airport had just started their careers.

Pilot Antoine Forest and first officer MacKenzie Gunther were killed after the CRJ-900 plane, which was carrying more than 70 people from Montreal, crashed into a fire truck on Sunday evening. The truck was responding to a separate United Airlines aircraft that had reported an issue with an "odour".

The two were at the "start of their careers", Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, told reporters.

"So it's an absolute tragedy that we're sitting here with their loss," he said.

Forest, aged 30, was a resident of Quebec.

His LinkedIn page listed him as an employee of Jazz Aviation, which operated the Air Canada plane, since December 2022.

Jeannette Gagnier, his great aunt, said he always wanted to be a pilot.

She told a news channel that he flew his first plane when he was 16.

Gunther was also a Canadian-based pilot.

A passenger credited the pilots' "incredible reflexes" for saving their lives. 

"They braked extremely hard just as the plane touched down," he said.

Air Canada Passengers Narrate New York Airport Crash

After the Air Canada jet collided with the fire truck, passengers said they tore open emergency exit doors, jumped off the plane's wings and then turned around to catch others coming up behind them.

"Strangely enough, I wasn't scared or panicked. On the contrary, I think most of us were pretty aware of what happened," said passenger Clement Lelievre. "So we all went outside; we got other people out."

Another passenger said the jet hit turbulence while descending, and she then felt it brake hard and heard a loud boom.

"Everybody just jolted out of their seats. People hit their heads. People were bleeding," Rebecca Liquori told a news channel.

She said passengers helped each other slide down a wing.

"I'm just happy to be alive," Liquori, who had gone to Montreal for a cousin's baby shower, said.

"I would have never pictured a one-hour flight that I've done countless times ... ending like this," she said.

Moments after the Air Canada plane collided with the fire truck, killing the pilots and hurling a flight attendant from the aircraft, the passengers took their escape into their own hands.

About 40 passengers and crew members and two people from the fire truck were taken to hospitals. Some suffered serious injuries, but by Monday morning, most had been released, and others walked away without needing treatment.