NTSB briefing: what we learnt about the Air Canada crash at LaGuardia Airport

Following the Air Canada Express crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA) the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has begun investigating the incident to ascertain the surrounding events that led to deaths of two pilots.

On March 23, 2026, the NTSB confirmed investigators were at the crash scene after the Jazz Aviation operated flight collided with a fire truck on Runway 4.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy led a press briefing on March 23, 2026, at 18:00 where she set out the known details in relation to the tragedy and the next steps ahead for investigators.

During the 20-minute media briefing here is what we learned about the Air Canada Express crash:

Homendy started by stating that an Air Canada Express Bombardier CRJ900 operated by Jazz Aviation struck a rescue and firefighting vehicle while landing at LGA on March 22, 2026, at around 23:27.

Flight 8646 had 72 passengers onboard the aircraft and four crew members while two firefighters were inside the rescue vehicle.

My son is at LGA right now. Here’s the view. It’s sad what happened. I can’t believe it happened. So happy to hear the flight attendant who was ejected from the plane survived. pic.twitter.com/2KY0wwxweb— @Heather_Poole (@Heather_Poole) March 23, 2026 Homendy expressed her “deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones” in the accident.

The NTSB expects to have around 25 specialists on site. The first team members begun arriving at around 03:10 on March 23, 2026.

Homendy said that some specialists were still on their way, while highlighting that the NTSB had not had a full day of investigation.

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“I think that’s important because there are a lot of questions, and I understand there are a lot of questions. I’ve heard them, on air traffic control, on the tower, air traffic control communications, the vehicle. Many questions, and I know you have many questions, but I just want to set expectations,” said Homendy.

The NTSB chair then explained that it had been a “big challenge” to get staff to the crash site while navigating the LGA shut down, a ground stop at Newark Liberty Airport (EWR), the DHS shutdown and long TSA lines.

Homendy even recounted how an NTSB air traffic specialist was in line with TSA for three hours until the agency had to “beg to see if we could get her through, so we can get her here.”

Moving on to the investigation, Homendy confirmed that the NTSB team had conducted a walking inspection of the scene where they saw a “tremendous amount of debris” across the runway and taxiway.

“In addition, the tail of this aircraft is on the ground and in order to get to the cock pit voice recorder (CVR) and the flight data recorder (FDR), the Port Authority and emergency responders cut a hole on the roof of the aircraft, dropped down and was able to get those for us,” explained Homendy.

bradysego12 / RedditThe CVR and FDR were then driven to the NTSB labs in Washington DC. The CVR was confirmed as undamaged and the FDR will be looked at on March 24, 2026.

The NTSB has also started gathering information on air traffic control staffing in the tower, communications training and is looking to obtain data from the fire and rescue unit.

Responding to speculation in the press about staffing numbers in the control tower, Homendy said that the agency “deals in facts” and “does not speculate” and will be providing information around this area once it has been verified.

Separately from the NTSB, the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has described rumours that only one staff member was in the tower at the time of the crash as “not accurate”.

When asked by a member of the press how long Runway 4 will be closed to allow for the NTSB to investigate, Homendy said it would take “some time”.

“There’s a lot of debris and we need to go through all of that to figure out what we need to take back to our labs. What we might want to collect, first and foremost what we need to take pictures of to document that evidence. And we need to collect some of that evidence, then when we get to that it’s going to be days,” said Homendy.

Working with Canadian authorities

Homendy also confirmed the agency will be working with Canadian authorities and with the aircraft manufacturer as well.

Commenting on the air traffic controller who has been heard on recordings interacting with aircraft and the rescue vehicle, Homendy said that “typically” following these incidents they would be “removed from duty”.

“Certainly, it’s pretty traumatic for that air traffic controller as well and we’ll want to interview that controller as well as any others that were in the tower and maybe even not in the tower,” explained Homendy.

Homendy was unable to answer the majority of the press questions, explaining that much of the information needs to be fact checked and verified first.

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