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Two people have died after a plane collided with a ground vehicle at New York’s LaGuardia airport, closing the site and disrupting flights at one of the city’s three main hubs on Monday.
The flight from Montreal operated by Jazz Aviation, a partner of Air Canada, was carrying 72 passengers, the airline said. It collided with a vehicle on the taxiway after landing. Authorities said the pilot and co-pilot died and about 40 people were taken to hospital with injuries. Several have since been released.
The US Federal Aviation Administration grounded all planes following the incident, with the airport on social media warning of long queues and waiting times for passengers expecting to fly later on Monday.
A “ground stop” preventing planes landing is in place until 2pm local time.
Flights around New York were further disrupted on Monday after landings and take-offs were briefly halted from Newark airport, leaving JFK International as the city’s only operating airport.
Newark’s control tower was briefly evacuated about 7.30am local time (11.30am UK time) because of “a burning smell coming from an elevator”, the FAA said on Monday. Flights restarted after around an hour, according to live details from the airport.
Planes flying towards LaGuardia have been diverted to other destinations, according to data from Flightradar24.
Jazz Aviation said it “confirms that an incident involving AC8646 operated by a CRJ900 has occurred at LaGuardia”.
“The preliminary passenger list indicates the aircraft was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members, although this is subject to confirmation.”
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said that at “approximately 11.40pm on Sunday, a Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada was involved in an incident on runway four at LaGuardia airport’’. The aircraft struck a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident, it said.
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