Pilots killed in LaGuardia Airport runway collision identified as 2 "young men at the start of their careers"
CBS News • • business
Key Points:
- Two Canadian pilots, Capt. Antoine Forest and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther, died in a runway collision between an Air Canada Express plane and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Sunday night.
- The collision injured 39 passengers and crew members, with six remaining hospitalized; the plane was arriving from Montreal with 72 passengers and four crew onboard.
- Preliminary information suggests air traffic control initially cleared the fire-rescue vehicle to cross the runway before ordering it to stop, and a runway warning system failed to activate prior to the crash.
- Antoine Forest was from Coteau-du-Lac, Québec, and had worked for two airlines over five years, while Mackenzie Gunther recently graduated from Seneca Polytechnic's aviation program and was part of Air Canada’s Jazz Aviation Pathways Program.
- Passengers credited the pilots’ quick reflexes for preventing more severe injuries, as the plane braked hard just before touchdown during the collision.
