Pilots killed in LaGuardia runway crash being transported to Canada
The bodies of the two pilots killed when an Air Canada plane collided with a Port Authority fire-rescue truck on a LaGuardia Airport runway on Sunday night are to be transported back to Canada on Wednesday.
They were taken to a funeral home in Queens in the morning and are to be flown to their homeland later in the day.
This comes as the National Transportation Safety Board continues investigating the deadly collision, which also injured dozens. Six people remain hospitalized, and the runway is still closed.
Canadian pilots identified
The pilot and co-pilot, or first officer, of Flight 8646 have been identified as Antoine Forest, 30, a native of Quebec, and Mackenzie Gunther, officials announced Tuesday.
"These were two young men at the start of their careers," Federal Aviation Administration Administrator Brian Bedford told reporters Monday. "It's an absolute tragedy that we're sitting here with their loss."
Forest's aunt told The Associated Press that he always wanted to be a pilot. His LinkedIn page showed he worked for two airlines over the past five years.
Gunther's alma mater, Seneca Polytechnic, said in a statement that he graduated in 2023 and joined Air Canada's training program, the Jazz Aviation Pathways Program, immediately after.
Latest on the investigation into LaGuardia collision
NTSB investigator Doug Brazy spoke Tuesday about the final minutes of the cockpit voice recordings between the air traffic control tower and the pilots and the tower and the emergency truck.
In the last 40 seconds of the audio, the truck requests to cross the runway, and the tower gives clearance, doing so as the Air Canada plane is within 100 feet of the runway.
With nine seconds left on the recording, the tower tells the vehicle to stop.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy revealed that there were people on duty in the tower during the collision, but it still needs to be determined how many certified professional controllers were in the facility.
Officials have not determined who was in charge of movement on taxiways at the time.
