New York’s LaGuardia Airport has reopened for flights after an incident where two pilots died when an Air Canada plane collided with a firefighting vehicle
A flight attendant was found alive on the ground by rescuers, still strapped to her seat – which had fallen through the floor of the damaged plane, US media reports
Audio from the control tower has a loud beeping noise as a person repeatedly tells a truck to stop as it went to cross the runway
The plane, carrying 73 passengers and four crew, initially landed safely from Montreal on Sunday evening
Sources tell BBC’s US partner CBS News the aircraft then hit the truck while travelling at roughly 100mph (160km/h)
Some 43 passengers and crew were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from broken bones to bruising – all but nine have since been discharged. Two fire truck officers are in a stable condition in hospital
“We were 100 metres away… it was like the plane got cut in half”, a witness tells the BBC.
Flight attendant’s daughter calls mother’s survival ‘a complete miracle’
The Air Canada flight attendant who was found alive strapped to her seat after the collision has been identified as Solange Tremblay from Quebec.
Her daughter, Sarah Lépine, told local broadcaster TVA Nouvelles on Monday that Tremblay was ejected with her seat more than a hundred metres (300ft) from the plane, and had suffered multiple fractures.
She was strapped in and seated behind the pilots when the plane landed, Lépine tells the broadcaster.
“It’s a complete miracle,” the Lépine says. “She had a guardian angel watching over her. It could have been much worse.”
Tremblay is being treated for her injuries and will undergo surgery for a broken leg, Lépine told TVA Nouvelles.
Credit: BBC
