Pilots killed in LaGuardia Airport crash saved lives with quick reflexes, passengers say

Thomas Tracy, New York Daily News on Mar 24, 2026

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NEW YORK — Passengers of the Air Canada jet that slammed into a Port Authority firetruck at LaGuardia Airport praised the two pilots killed in the crash, saying their quick reflexes likely prevented further deaths.

Multiple passengers recalled feeling the pilots braking “extremely hard” as the plane touched down on the Queens runway moments before the 11:35 p.m. Sunday crash.

“I think he kind of saved our lives because he must have had incredible reflexes,” passenger Clément Lelièvre told The Canadian Press.

Several other passengers recalled the same hard braking and believed that pilot Antoine Forest put the plane into reverse thrust to slow it down just seconds before the crash.

Passengers agreed that more deaths could have occurred if Forest and first officer Mackenzie Gunther hadn’t taken immediate action.

Forest and Gunther were the only to die in the blistering crash, which sheared off the plane’s nose.

The National Transportation Safety Board recovered the plane’s black box from the wreckage on Monday as they continue the probe into what happened. LaGuardia Airport was shut down for hours after the crash with more than 600 flights cancelled.

The airport was reopened on Monday afternoon but runway four, where the crash occurred, remains closed Tuesday, Port Authority officials said.

The NTSB said that all avenues will be investigated, including the possibility that a tower operator gave the emergency vehicle permission to cross the runway without realizing the Air Canada plane was landing there.

The dramatic seconds before and after the crash were captured on audio, with an air traffic controller saying he “messed up” by failing to prevent the collision.

The fire truck was on its way to investigate a strange odor in the cabin of another plane when the Air Canada plane slammed into it.

Forest, 30, is from Coteau-du-Lac, a city southwest of Montreal, and had been flying since he was 16 years old, his great-aunt Jeannette Gagnier told the Toronto Star.

He learned to fly on bush planes as a teenager before taking on larger jets, Gagnier said.

“He was always taking courses and flying,” she said. “He never stopped.”

During his junior year in high school, Forest moved in with Gagnier to work on his English, which he believed was vital to his future career as a pilot, his great-aunt said.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Forest flew bush planes for Air Saguenay. He later moved on to pilot twin-engine aircraft for ExactAir before joining Jazz Aviation as a first officer in December 2022.

Gunther graduated from Seneca Polytechnic Flight School Honours Bachelor of Aviation Technology program in Montreal in 2023. He joined Jazz Aviation, which operates Air Canada Express flights, immediately after graduation, school officials said.

Flags at Seneca were ordered flown at half mast Tuesday in honor of Gunther.

“Seneca sends our deepest condolences to Mr. Gunther’s family and friends, and to his former colleagues and professors,” the school said in a statement. “He will be deeply missed.”

“Today is an incredibly difficult day for our airline, our employees, and most importantly, the families and loved ones of those affected by the accident involving flight 8646,” Jazz Aviation president Doug Clarke said in a statement. “We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of our two pilots and our unwavering support to those who have been injured.”

Bryan Bedford, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, called Forest and Gunther “two young men at the start of their careers.”

“It’s an absolute tragedy that we’re sitting here with their loss,” he said Monday.

Gov. Kathy Hochul echoed the sentiment.

“Two young pilots left their homes expecting to return to their families, and they will not,” she said. “This is what pains everyone.”

Another crew member, flight attendant Solange Tremblay, was found alive strapped into her jumpseat — which had been ejected — more than 320 feet across the tarmac from the mangled plane.

The flight attendant suffered a broken leg, officials said.

Tremblay was strapped in behind the pilots when the plane crashed, her daughter Sarah Lépine told TVA Nouvelles.

“It’s nothing short of a miracle,” Lépine said. “At the moment of impact, her seat was thrown more than a hundred meters away from the plane. They found her, and she was still strapped into her seat. She had a guardian angel watching right over her. It could have been so much worse.”

Forty-one people — passengers, crew members and the two Port Authority police officers in the firetruck — were taken to area hospitals, with 32 treated for minor injuries and released and the other nine more seriously hurt, authorities said.

The two injured Port Authority officers, who were aboard the fire truck at the time of the crash, were in stable condition. One was released late Monday, with the other being held overnight for observation.

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