What the Pilots Might Have Seen Before the Collision at LaGuardia Airport

The moments before the fatal impact at LaGuardia Airport were filled with sudden, high-stakes decisions that may have decided the fate of everyone on board.

The collision that killed two Air Canada pilots on Sunday night has left investigators piecing together a chain of failures that unfolded in the dark.

As the investigation unfolds, a chilling picture is emerging of what the pilots encountered during those critical final seconds on the runway.

Evidence from the flight deck suggests the crew wasn't just sitting back during the rollout of their CRJ-900. Instead, they may have been engaged in a last-ditch effort to steer the massive jet away from a disaster that was rapidly appearing in their windshield.

These new details from the National Transportation Safety Board are beginning to paint a picture of what was happening inside the cockpit — and why it may have already been too late.

A Routine Landing That Wasn't

The Air Canada flight was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members when it touched down at LaGuardia on the night of March 22, 2026. It was, by all accounts, a routine approach — until the wheels hit the pavement and the nightmare began.

First Officer Mackenzie Gunther had been flying the aircraft into LaGuardia, which is standard practice. On multi-leg flights, pilots routinely swap the flying duties between legs, and Gunther had the controls for this one.

Then, almost immediately after the aircraft settled onto the runway, the atmosphere in the cockpit shifted. Something on the tarmac caught their attention, triggering a sudden change in command.

Two Seconds After Touchdown

According to the NTSB's preliminary review of the cockpit voice recorder, Capt. Antoine Forest took what is known as "positive control" of the aircraft just two seconds after touchdown.

That is the moment one pilot formally transfers authority over the plane to the other, with a clear verbal handoff. Just six seconds later, the plane struck the fire truck.

This leaves a terrifyingly small window where the captain was suddenly in charge of a metal beast hurtling down a runway.

It is possible this was a completely normal, planned handover as they switched duties for the taxi to the gate. But it is also highly possible that Forest grabbed control because he saw a looming shadow appearing in the landing lights.

The One Tool That Could Have Steered Them Clear

Here is where the aircraft's design becomes critical. On the CRJ-900, there is only one tiller — the wheel used to steer the plane on the ground — and it sits exclusively on the captain's side.

This means only Forest, in the left seat, had the physical ability to steer the aircraft once the nose wheel was down. Gunther, sitting in the first officer's seat on the right, had no access to this vital steering control.

Passengers on board reported what felt like heavier-than-usual braking during those final moments. Whether Forest also attempted to steer the plane away from the truck is something only the full NTSB investigation can determine.

The fire truck had entered the runway from the left side, directly in the path of the decelerating jet. If Forest saw it in time, the tiller was his only hope to yank the plane to the right and avoid a massacre.

Whether he used it, and what he saw in those six seconds, remains an open question.

A Safety System That Went Silent

What makes this tragedy even more haunting is the fact that the airport's high-tech safety net was essentially full of holes. According to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy, the fire truck involved in the collision was not equipped with a transponder.

Without a transponder, air traffic controllers have no digital way to identify and track vehicles moving on the airfield. The truck was effectively a ghost on the radar, moving through a high-traffic zone without a signal.

On top of that, LaGuardia's surface detection system, known as ASDE-X, failed to generate a collision alert.

The reason: the proximity of multiple vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway caused the system to lose its ability to track the fire truck with enough confidence to trigger a warning.

What the Cockpit May Have Looked Like

The illustrative images of the scene show a terrifying perspective: rain on the windshield and the glow of runway lights stretching ahead. Suddenly, flashing red and blue lights cut through the dark, directly in the line of fire.

By the time those lights resolved into a recognizable fire truck, there was likely nothing left to do but pray. The impact was so violent that a flight attendant was reportedly thrown from the plane while still strapped into her seat.

Both Forest and Gunther died in the collision, leaving the aviation world to wonder if they spent their last seconds in a futile struggle for the tiller. Dozens of others were injured, though the two firefighters aboard the truck managed to survive the wreckage.

What Investigators Still Need to Answer

The NTSB has been clear: the full investigation will take time, and no conclusions have been drawn. The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder are both being analyzed. Interviews with surviving crew members, air traffic controllers, and airport personnel are ongoing.

The central questions — why the fire truck was on the runway with no transponder, and whether anyone on the ground or in the tower had the information needed to prevent the collision — remain unanswered.

What is known is this: two pilots were the last line of defense, in the dark, with six seconds, and a steering control only one of them could reach.