On Mar. 22 2026, a crash occurred on a LaGuardia airport runway that involved a landing plane and a firetruck responding to an emergency on the other side of the runway.

In videos seen online, you can see the fire truck cross the runway as the plane was landing. Without the audio from the control tower, it was a common belief that the firetruck was at fault. However, soon after the release of the footage, the control tower audio came out.

After the fire truck asked permission to cross, the air traffic controller gave permission by saying, “Truck one and company, cross 4 at Delta.” Soon after, while the truck was on the runway, the air traffic control could be heard frantically telling the truck to stop. However, the collision was unavoidable and the plane can be seen slamming into the back corner of the firetruck.

Unfortunately, this miscommunication caused the death of both pilots, and the injuries of many passengers on board. The fire truck drivers were injured, but were released from the hospital on March 23rd and 26th. Many of the passengers had minor injuries, leaving 9 passengers in the hospital, all of which have now been released.

LaGuardia airport was closed for around 14 hours and canceled hundreds of flights in order to perform a proper investigation. This accident was the first of its kind in over 30 years, and LaGuardia will move forward by doing everything they have been to prevent tragic accidents like this one.