William Morgan
The horrifying crash involving a passenger plane and a fire truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport on Sunday, which tragically claimed the lives of two pilots, miraculously saw dozens of people walk away mostly unscathed.
Apart from the pilot, Antoine Forest, and his co-pilot, Mackenzie Gunther, 72 passengers survived the impact at the major regional travel hub, with 41 of them hospitalized in the aftermath.
The crash unfolded at around 11:40pm on Sunday night (March 22) as the Bombardier CRJ-900 flight from Montreal plowed into a New York Port Authority fire truck, which was receiving urgent instructions from air traffic control to clear the runway.
After the impact, passengers described having been thrown around the cabin by the force of the jolt and being left to figure out the emergency exits for themselves.
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This is because a flight attendant had been ejected from the plane - reportedly flying around 300ft across the tarmac while still strapped to her chair.
After being thrown from the aircraft as it smashed into a stationary object, Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures, including a broken leg, but no other serious injuries.
The exact mechanics of her improbable survival are not immediately obvious, but an aviation expert has pointed to one key factor that may've kept Tremblay alive, despite the massive force of impact - her seat.
Former federal plane crash investigator, Jeff Guzzetti, told the New York Post that the foldable 'jump seat' that flight attendants sit in during takeoff and landing probably saved the Air Canada employee's life.
He explained: “The flight attendant’s seat is kind of a jump seat that folds down and is bolted to the wall, the same wall that the cockpit utilizes.”
It's reported that the seat also has a four-point harness to better secure its occupant.
Guzzetti, who has 'over 35 years of experience to promote aviation safety', described this foldable seat as 'very robust' and explained: “It’s designed to withstand probably more crash loads than passenger seats because you need the flight attendant to help passengers get out of an airplane after a crash.”
Tremblay's daughter, Sarah Lépine, told Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles that her mom's survival was nothing short of a 'complete miracle', adding: “She had a guardian angel watching over her. It could have been much worse.”
According to Lépine, her mom will undergo surgery at the hospital.
A nurse who was on board the plane when it smashed into a fire truck spoke to the New York Times about how the lack of a flight attendant had left the terrified passengers without direction in the moments after the crash.
35-year-old Rebecca Liquorim, who was in seat 19A, told the publication: “Unfortunately the flight attendant that was in the front, she got ejected from the plane so we really did not have direction. I did what I was instructed at the beginning of the flight.”
Passengers quickly opened the doors themselves, disembarking onto a wing of the downed plane before dropping to the ground.
The exact cause of the crash is still being investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), with a new conference being held today (March 24).
Both pilots who were tragically killed in the plane crash in New York on Sunday (22 March) have now been named.
Passengers praised their selfless actions, with French traveller Clément Lelièvre telling CBC: “Just as the plane touched down, the pilot braked extremely hard.
“I think he kind of saved our lives because he must have had incredible reflexes.”
Forest, 30, from Quebec, had worked for Jazz Aviation since December 2022.
His great-aunt Jeannette Gagnier told the Toronto Star: “He flew his first plane when he was 16 years old. He was always taking courses and flying. He never stopped.
“It’s a very bad day for me.”
Gunther was identified in a statement released by his former college Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto, Ontario.
They said he joined Jazz Aviation immediately after graduating and was the first officer on the doomed flight from Montreal to New York.
The statement added: “Seneca sends our deepest condolences to Mr Gunther’s family and friends, and to his former colleagues and professors. He will be deeply missed.”
FAA administrator Bryan Bedford described the pilots as ‘two young men at the start of their careers’, saying it was an ‘absolute tragedy’ their lives were cut short.