Air Canada passenger recounts terrifying crash that killed pilot and co-pilot

A passenger who was on board the Air Canada plane which crashed, killing the pilot and co-pilot, has recalled the moment he realised something had gone horribly wrong.

The Bombardier CRJ-900 twin-jet aircraft collided with a fire engine on the ground at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Sunday, March 22.

Flight 8646 had 72 passengers and four crew members on board, and had left Montreal, Canada, at 10:12pm local time before the incident at LaGuardia some 90 minutes later.

The crash happened as the plane was coming in to land, but it tragically collided with the fire truck despite the best efforts of air traffic controllers.

One man who was on board at the time of the horrifying accident has explained what happened to a reporter from CNN, who posted a video on X.

The passenger, called Jack Cabot, told the journalist: "We went down for a regular landing and we came in pretty hard."

He continued: "We immediately hit something and it was just chaos from there, about five seconds later."

"We had come to a stop but in that short period everyone was hunkered down and everybody was screaming," Cabot added.

"Pretty quickly, we didn't have any directions because the pilot's cabin had been destroyed, so somebody said let's get the emergency exit and get the door and let's all jump out, and that's exactly what we did."

Port Authority director Kathryn Garcia reported that the fire engine was on the runway attending to another plane which had reported difficulties.

According to CBS, the other flight was operated by United Airlines.

That plane was delayed on the ground after an anti-ice warning, but the pilots and passengers soon felt unwell and reported an odour in the cockpit.

Dozens of people were injured in the incident, with 41 people were taken to various hospitals following the crash.

It is reported that 39 of the injured people were onboard the aircraft, and two of the other injured people are Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting officers from the truck that was hit.

Air traffic control allegedly cleared the fire-rescue truck to cross the runway to reach the United Airlines flight that was in difficulty, before telling it to stop.

Recordings of the air traffic controllers frantically trying to prevent the crash have been released.

Another pilot, Capt. Laura Einsetler, told CBS the incident was 'very concerning.'

"It's very unusual to have a situation where we're landing on the runway and you have emergency equipment – emergency equipment operators on the runway itself," she said.

LaGuardia airport remains closed.