Reaction poured in on Monday after an Air Canada passenger jet flying from Montreal to New York City crashed into a fire truck after landing at LaGuardia Airport, raising questions about the actions of the air traffic controllers on duty at the time of the fatal accident.

Recordings captured the moments before the crash, when one controller could be heard granting permission to the fire truck to cross the runway, before he urged the vehicle to stop, but it was too late to avoid the collision, which claimed the lives of both pilots on board.

What we know:

• The plane was operated by Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation
• Two pilots were killed and dozens of passengers injured
• Flights to and from Montreal to LaGuardia Airport are gradually resuming
• The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is sending investigators to New York City

Here is the latest:

A quiet night inside New York’s LaGuardia Airport after the deady crash

NEW YORK - A somber evening at Queens, New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Monday night following the deadly, devastating chain of events that claimed the lives of two Air Canada Jazz pilots.

At this hour, multiple passengers remain in hospital and the wreckage of Air Canada flight 8646 remains strewn across LaGuardia’s runway number four.

United States National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) Chair, Jennifer Homendy confirmed that Canadian Transportation Safety Board investigators will be part of the team, piecing together what went so tragically wrong.

Homendy also said it will take days for investigators to sift through the wreckage on the tarmac, photograph and identify items that need to be removed and taken back to NTSB headquarters in Washington DC.

Crews have removed the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorders, after cutting through the roof of the aircraft to access them. Both recorders have been taken Washington for further analysis.

At this hour limited flights are departing and arriving at LaGuardia.

Flight delays across the U.S. could mean that some key investigators are still making their way to the scene that is now part of a multi-national investigation.

Passenger says they helped each other escape the plane

Flight attendant Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures to one leg and will need surgery after being thrown from the plane, daughter Sarah Lepine told Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles.

Her survival is “a total miracle,” Lepine said.

“I’m still trying to understand how all this happened, but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her,” Lepine told the station.

Passenger Rebecca Liquori said the plane 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,” Liquori told News12 Long Island, a station where she once worked.

Liquori, who said she helped open the emergency exit door, recalled passengers helping each other slide down a wing to get out.

“I’m just happy to be alive,” said Liquori, who had gone to Montreal for a cousin’s baby shower. “I would have never pictured a one-hour flight that I’ve done countless times … ending like this.”

An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)

Multiple parties, including Air Canada could face liability, aviation lawyer says

An aviation lawyer says multiple parties could be held responsible following the Air Canada incident at LaGuardia airport on Sunday.

“The FAA (U.S. Federal Aviation Administration) is a target. The Port Authority of New York is a target, and I’m sorry to say that the Air Canada airline and the jazz airline, which was operating under the Air Canada umbrella, will also be held responsible,” Arthur Rosenberg, a former pilot, told CTV News Channel Monday.

Rosenberg said international rules under the Montreal Convention could also apply, making airlines financially liable up to a set threshold, with the possibility of higher damages if fault is proven.He said any legal action would likely proceed in New York.

“The plane is here (in New York). The witnesses are here. The documents are here. Everything that’s tied to this case is here, not in Canada. So, this case belongs in New York.”

Ground controller’s workload at time of crash will need to be examined: aviation analyst

Aviation analyst Robert Kokonis said one of the biggest questions that need to be answered right now, is around the workload the ground controller was under.

It will need to be determined if he was well-rested, and if he was tasked with multiple ground movements, or departure movements, at the time of the crash, Kokonis said.

“A lot of big airports will use a separate ground controller from those that handle incoming and outbound flights, but we don’t know that for sure,” he told CTV News Channel.

“We need to understand that piece of it.”

He added that the movements of the aircraft and the firetruck involved in the crash, along with the audio from the communication towers will also need to be examined.

A system under stress

About 40 passengers and crew members on the Air Canada jet and the two people in the fire truck were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.

While investigators work to determine what led to the runway crash, aviation experts say the incident highlights the demanding environment controllers navigate every day -- managing planes landing and taking off, aircraft moving between gates and runways, and service vehicles ranging from emergency responders to maintenance trucks.

“In the best of times, air traffic controls and air traffic controllers are under a great deal of stress,” said Alan Diehl, a former federal crash investigator.

“These are people with very high cognitive levels. They’re carefully selected, extensively trained. And one of the problems is there is a shortage of 3,000 of them in this country right now.”

NTSB: Recorders recovered, surveillance video collected

Jennifer Homendy, chair of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters Monday that cockpit voice and flight data recorders have been recovered from the aircraft, and surveillance video has also been collected.

Homendy said about 25 specialists are on site, with additional investigators working from Washington, and that the probe is still in its early stages and the runway closure could last several days.

She said authorities are still verifying details, including how many people were in the control tower at the time.

Homendy said investigators will also interview the air traffic controller involved in an incident, adding it is typical for a controller to be removed from duty, and that the incident has been “pretty traumatic for that air traffic controller.”

She also said the NTSB will work with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which will provide technical advisers from the airline and aircraft manufacturer as part of the joint fact-finding effort.

U.S. Transportation Secretary says LaGuardia is well-staffed

United States Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy says LaGuardia Airport is open but operating at reduced capacity.

He also addressed rumours that only one person was in the control tower at the time of the incident, saying “that is inaccurate”.

Duffy said LaGuardia needs funding to upgrade its air traffic control system, but emphasized that the airport is well staffed. He told reporters that there are 33 certified controllers at LaGuardia Airport, with an additional seven in training.

Duffy described the two pilots killed in the crash as young men at the start of the their career, and said Transport Canada is sending a team to take part in the investigation into the incident.

‘The tower was quite occupied’

Aviation safety consultant Keith Mackey told CTV News Channel Monday that the fire truck was “given clearance” to cross the runway “further down,” due to an issue with a United aircraft.

“There was a lot going on at the time. We had a United aircraft that was having a smoke issue. There was a smoke odor in the cabin and they were trying to get somewhere they could open the door and clear it out,” Mackey said.

“The tower was quite occupied with that. They had the fire truck proceeding to the United flight to see what they could do when our Air Canada problem arose.”

Mackey says “we’ll soon find out” if a lack of air traffic controllers on duty was a factor in the crash, adding that a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report should reveal the answers in approximately a month.