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American passengers from crashed Air Canada jet thanking pilots for saving their lives
American passengers of the ill-fated Air Canada jet that crashed at New York’s LaGuardia airport on Sunday are publicly thanking the Canadian pilots — crediting them with saving dozens of lives.
The crash occurred after passengers aboard a United Airlines flight complained of feeling ill due to a mysterious odour. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey dispatched a rescue truck to assist .
The landing was rough but the passengers believed they were in the clear. Then the plane collided with the truck. The cockpit was torn off and the two Air Canada pilots Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther were killed.
“It was like a grinding sound. Then, a couple seconds after that, you just felt the collision,” passenger Rebecca Liquori, a registered nurse told NBC News . “It was like the loudest boom I’ve ever heard.”
Air traffic control audio recordings revealed a controller saying, “Truck 1, stop,” after previously instructing it to cross the runway. Post-collision, audio captured a controller saying: “I messed up.”
“We didn’t know what was going on — if the plane was going to combust,” Liquori told NBC. “Everybody was scared. Everybody thought they were going to die.”
Liquori said the actions of the pilots made all the difference. She said she “felt them brake” as the plane touched down, slowing it before the collision with the truck, ultimately absorbing the brunt of the collision.
“I’m just so appreciative that they were able to save us, but I’m just so sad that they weren’t able to make it home to their families,” she said. “I wouldn’t be here had it not been for the pilot acting quickly.”
Another passenger, who asked to be identified by his first name, Joseph, was travelling with his fiancée. He said they sustained minor injuries, and like Liquori, he credited the pilots with braking and saving people.
“I fully believe that these two pilots, who unfortunately lost their lives, did everything in their power to stop the plane and slow it down at the very last minute,” he told NBC. “They deserve all the credit for being heroes that day.”
FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford expressed his sympathy to the young pilots’ families at Monday’s news conference.
“It’s an absolute tragedy,” Bedford said.
Several passengers recalled to the New York Daily News that it was the hard braking that saved them. Some believed the pilots put the plane into reverse thrust to slow it down just seconds before the crash.
President Donald Trump called the LaGuardia crash “terrible” and described aviation as a “dangerous business,” but he did not single out the Canadian pilots or offer any tribute.
Antoine Forest was a native of Coteau-du-Lac, southwest of Montreal. Mackenzie Gunther was a 2023 alumnus of Toronto’s Seneca Polytechnic.
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