A last-second move that may have saved lives

Amid the chaos, one detail has stood out — a desperate maneuver in the final seconds before impact.

“But someone did say the pilot tried to reverse thrust at the last second. Honestly, they likely saved our lives. I wish I could tell their families how thankful I am. They are heroes ,” bradysego12 wrote.

That split-second decision may have reduced the force of the crash, potentially saving dozens of passengers.

Tragically, officials later confirmed that two pilots lost their lives in the collision.

One of the pilots has been identified as a 30-year-old from Quebec who was deeply passionate about aviation — even learning English to improve his chances of becoming a pilot. His great-aunt, Jeannette Gagnier, shared emotional memories of him in an interview:

“He flew his first plane when he was 16 years old,” she told the Toronto Star.

She added that his dedication never faded:

“He was always taking courses and flying. He never stopped.”

Chilling audio reveals final warning

Air traffic control audio paints an even more haunting picture of what happened on the ground.

Moments before the crash, controllers can be heard urgently trying to stop a vehicle crossing the runway:

“Truck 1, stop.”

Seconds later, confusion takes over — and then silence.

In the aftermath, stunned voices filled the radio:

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“Alright, there’s an incident on the field.”

“Yeah, we saw it, man.”

Later, one voice appeared to struggle with the weight of what had happened:

“I messed up.”

To which another responded:

“No man, you did the best you could.”

Airport shutdown and scenes of chaos

The collision brought operations at LaGuardia to a complete standstill. Flights were grounded, passengers stranded, and emergency crews flooded the runway.

Authorities say the aircraft, arriving from Montreal with more than 70 people onboard, struck the fire truck at around 24 mph. Dozens were taken to hospitals, though many were later released.

Travelers described confusion inside terminals as cancellations piled up and little information was available.

“It’s scary. You never know if it could have been one of us,” one passenger said after being stuck at the airport for hours.

”We were literally like 100 metres away,” said 23-year-old Leo Medina, who was onboard another plane on the tarmac when the crash happened. ”It was like the plane got cut in half.”

Warnings before the disaster

In the wake of the crash, renewed attention is being placed on prior safety concerns at LaGuardia.

Just a few months ago, in October, two Delta regional jets collided while taxiing at LaGuardia Airport, leaving one person hospitalized.

And more recently, in Newark Liberty International Airport, another near miss was reported when two aircraft attempted to land on intersecting runways at the same time.

Pilots have previously warned about miscommunication, heavy traffic, and increasing pressure on air traffic controllers — especially during bad weather.

Last summer, a pilot issued a stark warning in a report to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System, describing a close call at LaGuardia where air traffic controllers failed to give clear guidance about multiple nearby aircraft.

“Please do something,” the pilot wrote.

In the same report, the pilot raised concerns about growing pressure on operations at the airport:

“The pace of operations is building in LGA (LaGuardia). The controllers are pushing the line,” the pilot said. “On thunderstorm days, LGA is starting to feel like DCA did before the accident there,” referring to the January 2025 mid-air collision over the Potomac River in Washington, DC that killed more than 60 people.