"I MESSED UP" — AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER'S CHILLING WORDS AS LAGUARDIA CRASH KILLS TWO YOUNG PILOTS, EJECTING FLIGHT ATTENDANT 100 METRES INTO THE NIGHT

 

By Maa Tribune International Desk | March 24, 2026 | INTERNATIONAL

The words crackling through air traffic control recordings at New York's LaGuardia Airport in the final seconds before catastrophe are as chilling as they are brief.

"Truck One, stop, stop, stop!"

It was too late. At 11:40 PM on Sunday night, an Air Canada Express regional jet travelling from Montreal slammed into a Port Authority fire truck at 104 miles per hour on the runway, demolishing the cockpit, killing both pilots instantly, hurling a flight attendant still strapped to her seat more than 100 metres into the darkness, and triggering the worst disaster at LaGuardia Airport in 34 years.

This morning, as investigators sifted through a runway covered in debris and the black boxes were driven urgently to laboratories in Washington DC, one damning sentence from an air traffic controller has emerged at the centre of the investigation into what went so catastrophically wrong.

"I messed up," the controller was heard saying after the collision.

What Happened in the Final Minutes

The sequence of events that led to the collision began with a completely separate emergency on the other side of the airport. United Airlines Flight 2384 had aborted its takeoff after a warning light came on and flight attendants reported an odour in the cabin. The pilots declared an emergency and a Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle  a heavy fire truck  was dispatched from the fire station to assist.

To reach the United Airlines aircraft, the fire truck needed to cross Runway 4. Air traffic control gave it clearance to cross. Seconds later, the same controller cleared Air Canada Express Flight 8646 a CRJ-900 regional jet carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal  to land on the exact same runway.

The plane was already on final approach, descending through light rain and fog. By the time the controller realised both the truck and the plane were simultaneously on the runway and screamed at the truck to stop, there was no time. The jet hit the fire truck at between 93 and 105 miles per hour, according to preliminary analysis by flight tracking service FlightRadar24.

The collision tore the cockpit clean off the aircraft. Debris and cables hung from the mangled nose of the plane. The fire truck was thrown onto its side. Passengers inside the aircraft were hurled from their seats as the plane shuddered and screamed to a halt on the runway.

"It was just chaos in there," passenger Jack Cabot told CNN. "Everybody was hunkered down and everybody was screaming pretty quickly."

Two Young Pilots Dead at the Start of Their Careers

Both pilots — seated in the cockpit that took the full force of the impact  died instantly. They have been identified as Antoine Forest, 28, from Coteau-du-Lac, Quebec, and MacKenzie Gunther, also based in Canada.

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford, visibly emotional at a press conference on Monday, described them as "two young men at the start of their careers." Forest's great-aunt Jeannette Gagnier told the Toronto Star that her nephew had dreamed of being a pilot his entire life, never stopping to take courses and log hours. "He looked at me as a grandmother figure," she said. "He was always flying. He never stopped."

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the crash "deeply saddening." US President Donald Trump called it "terrible."

The Miracle of Seat 4C — Flight Attendant Ejected and Survives

Among the many harrowing stories to emerge from the wreckage, one stands apart entirely. Flight attendant Solange Tremblay was found alive in the darkness outside the aircraft  more than 100 metres from where the plane came to rest  still strapped to her seat, which had been torn from the aircraft by the force of the impact and flung across the tarmac.

Her daughter Sarah Lépine told Canadian broadcaster TVA Nouvelles: "At the moment of impact, her seat was ejected more than 100 metres from the plane. They found her and she was still strapped in her seat. She had a guardian angel who was looking right at her. It could have been so much worse."

Tremblay suffered multiple fractures and will require surgery on her leg, but she is alive  a fact her daughter called nothing short of miraculous.

43 Hospitalised — Inside the Cabin

In total, 43 people were taken to hospitals across New York following the collision, including 39 passengers and two Port Authority firefighters from the truck  Sgt. Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez  who suffered broken bones but are expected to survive.

One passenger suffered a brain bleed. By Monday afternoon, 32 of those hospitalised had been released.

The Controller Who Said "I Messed Up"

The six-second audio clip that has shaken America's aviation community captures the moments immediately after impact. An air traffic controller is heard urgently telling the fire truck to stop, then addressing the incoming plane  "JAZZ 646, I see you collided with the vehicle" before, in a quieter moment, saying simply: "I messed up."

Investigators have been careful not to assign blame prematurely. NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said her agency has considerable information on the crash, including tower staffing data, but stressed the NTSB deals only in verified facts.

"We have a lot of data right now, a lot of information, including information on tower staffing. But the NTSB deals in facts. We don't speculate. We don't take one person at their word. We verify that information carefully before we provide it," Homendy said.

Questions are already being raised publicly about whether the overnight tower was adequately staffed a concern that is particularly pointed given that airports across the United States are currently facing severe staffing shortages at the TSA and other agencies due to the ongoing partial government shutdown, which has been in force since mid-February.

The NTSB's own air traffic control specialist was delayed getting to New York on Monday because she spent over three hours stuck in a TSA security line in Houston  a detail that Homendy herself mentioned with barely concealed frustration at the press conference.

LaGuardia Partially Reopened — Chaos Continues

The airport, closed entirely for most of Monday, partially reopened at 2 PM with a single runway operational. The runway where the collision occurred will remain sealed until at least Friday morning while investigators complete evidence collection. Homendy described the scene as containing "a tremendous amount of debris" that will take days to fully process.

The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder  the black boxes  were recovered after investigators cut a hole in the roof of the aircraft to reach them, and were driven by road to NTSB laboratories in Washington DC. Officials confirmed the cockpit voice recorder was undamaged. Full analysis results are expected to be released publicly on Tuesday.

America's Aviation Safety Crisis

The LaGuardia disaster is the second major fatal aviation incident at a major US airport in 2026, following a shocking midair collision between a military helicopter and a commercial jet near Washington DC earlier this year that killed 67 people and triggered widespread calls for reform of US air traffic control systems.

Both crashes have ignited a fierce national debate about understaffing, budget cuts, and the pressure being placed on America's aviation infrastructure at a time of peak travel demand and government dysfunction.

Maa Tribune will update this story as the NTSB releases its investigation findings. Follow us on Twitter @maatribune.