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In a tragic incident at LaGuardia Airport, the valor and quick thinking of two pilots have been lauded for safeguarding the lives of their passengers. Despite the catastrophic accident, which claimed their own lives, these pilots’ actions ensured that every passenger aboard survived.
One of the survivors, Rebecca Liquori, shared her gratitude in an emotional interview with CNN. She expressed her eternal debt to pilot Antoine Forest and first officer Mackenzie Gunther, who lost their lives last Sunday in the crash involving Air Canada Express Flight 8646. The plane collided with a firetruck that was responding to a separate emergency.
Liquori recounted how the pilots immediately applied the brakes as soon as the aircraft made contact with the runway. This critical maneuver likely saved the lives of all 72 passengers, even as the plane collided with the firetruck. The impact tragically resulted in the deaths of the pilots and caused a crew member to be ejected from the aircraft while secured in a safety chair.
During her conversation with CNN’s Erin Burnett, Liquori emphasized the pilots’ heroism. “I truly believe the pilots saved our lives,” she stated. “Thanks to them, I was able to return safely to my children, and my heart goes out to their grieving families.”
“They’re the reasons I was able to make it home safe to see my boys, and my heart goes out to their families.”
Another passenger, Jack Cabot, said he owes his life to Forest and Gunther.
“Right as we hit the ground, we kind of felt, like, the brake was pretty hard and we all felt something was wrong,” Cabot told the CBC News Network.
“And then, it was just this sudden, overwhelming, like, panic, because we’d hit something and there was nobody in control.”
The pilots appear to have used the planes reverse thrust, according to the CBC. Reverse thrust temporarily redirects engine exhaust forward rather than backward helping the plane to rapidly decelerate after landing.
The flight data recorder, which has been recovered by investigators, will show whether pilots activated maximum reverse thrust, possibly after spotting the truck, the outlet reported.
Clément Lelièvre, a French national who was on board, told the Canadian Press he felt the pilots hit the brakes “extremely hard.”
“I don’t know the circumstances, but I think he kind of saved our lives because he must have had incredible reflexes,” Lelièvre said.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members onboard the plane, which was operated by Jazz Aviation and had departed from Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
OIf them, 41 were hospitalized after the collision around 11:45 p.m., including two Port Authority first responders who were in the firetruck.
Footage shows the jet barreling into the truck, leaving it completely mangled and toppled onto its side, and obliterating the front of the aircraft.
An audio recording caught an air traffic controller frantically yelling “Stop, stop, stop, stop!” before the deadly impact.
Runway 4, where the tragic collision unfolded, is expected to remain closed for days as officials work to clear the “tremendous” amount of debris, officials said on Monday.