Air Canada passenger says pilot ‘did his best’, recalls crash felt like plane was at ‘200 mph’

NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: After an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport, resulting in the deaths of two people, a passenger has defended the pilot and described that he "did his best he could" at the moment of the incident.

Jack Cabot was one of the 72 passengers travelling on the Air Canada Express flight, which met with a deadly accident on Sunday night, March 22.   

'Just chaos': Passenger recalls the moment after collision 

Recalling the utter mayhem after the jet collided with a truck, Cabot said, "The plane started veering off left and right’ as the jet crashed into the truck."

"We stopped really quickly and about two seconds later we had an absolute slam. Everybody was flying everywhere, I mean, the plane started veering off left and right. And there was, it was just chaos,” he added.

Further detailing the incident, Cabot said that nothing was under control. "It didn’t feel like anyone was in control of anything," he stated. "Looking back on it, the pilot did the best thing he could. He hit the brakes as hard as he could, and he knew it was going to be at the cost of his own life."

He further added, "It was like being in a gigantic car crash at 200 miles an hour."

Recounting the accident scene, Cabot said, "A lot of people got pretty hurt." 41 people, along with two firefighters, were taken to the hospital after the collision. 

The jet's pilot, 30-year-old Antoine Forest, and co-pilot, 22-year-old Mackenzie Gunther, were killed in the deadly crash. The collision resulted in complete damage of cockpit areas.

Last-second warning before collision

The air traffic control audio revealed that the fire truck was given a green light to cross the runway, but was instructed to stop as the plane approached the runway. 

In the audio, the traffic controller could be heard repeatedly shouting, “Truck One, stop, stop, stop!” However, it was too late for the truck to follow the instructions, and the jet hit the fire vehicle.

The incident has renewed attention on staffing challenges across US air traffic control towers, which have faced shortages in recent months.

Trump calls LaGuardia crash ‘terrible’

President Donald Trump on Monday described the deadly collision at LaGuardia Airport as “terrible,” as federal investigators moved swiftly to determine the cause of the late-night crash involving an Air Canada flight and a fire rescue vehicle.

Addressing reporters, the POTUS indicated the incident may have involved human error, stating, “They made a mistake; it’s a dangerous business.”

According to flight-tracking website Flightradar24, the Jazz Aviation-operated aircraft struck the truck at about 24mph (39km/h). The latest data about the flight available on Flightradar24 is from 11.37 pm local time on Sunday.