Tragic LaGuardia Plane Crash Claims Lives of Two Young Pilots

Wed Mar 25 2026 09:40:57 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

The aviation community mourns the loss of Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther, two pilots who lost their lives in a plane crash at LaGuardia Airport. The incident also left 41 others injured, raising concerns about aviation safety.

Antoine Forest, 30, from Québec, and Mackenzie Gunther, a recent graduate from Seneca Polytechnic, were identified as the pilots who were killed when their Air Canada Express flight collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport. The crash occurred late Sunday night, resulting in 41 injured individuals transported to local hospitals. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident, including issues with air traffic control and ground radar systems.

The two pilots killed when an Air Canada plane crashed into a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport have been identified as Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther.

Local media reported Forest was 30 years old and from Québec, while Gunther graduated from Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto in 2023.

The incident, which happened at 23:40 local time on Sunday (03:40 GMT on Monday), injured 41 people who were taken to hospital and shut down the New York airport until Monday afternoon.

These were two young men at the start of their career, so it's an absolute tragedy that we're sitting here with their loss, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) administrator Bran Bedford said.

Forest learned to fly bush planes in Saguenay in 2018, the Toronto Star reported. He was hired by Jazz Aviation in December 2022. His great aunt, Jeannette Gagnier, told the newspaper that he and his brother would spend summers with her as he practiced his English to become a pilot.

It's a very bad day for me...he was always taking courses and flying. He never stopped...he flew his first plane when he was 16 years old, she said.

Gunther graduated from Seneca, which said flags at the campus would be lowered to half-mast on Tuesday, before he was hired at Jazz. Seneca sends our deepest condolences to Mr Gunther's family and friends, and to his former colleagues and professors. He will be deeply missed, the college said in a statement.

The flight, operated by Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation, originated in Montreal.

Flight attendant Solange Tremblay from Quebec miraculously survived after being ejected from the plane and was found alive strapped to her seat more than a hundred metres (300ft) from the plane, suffering multiple fractures. Her daughter, Sarah Lépine, told local broadcaster TVA Nouvelles on Monday she was seated behind the pilots when the plane landed.

It's a complete miracle, Lépine said. She had a guardian angel watching over her. It could have been much worse. The two officers inside the fire truck that collided with the plane were also taken to hospital with injuries.

Investigators on Tuesday released details from the final three minutes of cockpit voice recordings and tower communications, including that controllers had cleared both the plane and a fire truck to cross the runway. National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy stated that the inquiry was ongoing and would include interviews with the two controllers on duty that night.

She noted that a ground radar system that could have provided an alert before the collision failed, and the truck lacked a transponder which would have helped the radar detect it. Calling the US air traffic control system old and in need of an upgrade, Homendy urged against assigning blame and emphasized the need for better information on ground movements.