Jake Offenhartz, Jennifer Peltz and Ed White
New York: A flight attendant still strapped in her seat survived being thrown from an Air Canada plane that collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, her daughter has said.
It’s a “total miracle,” Sarah Lépine told Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles.
She said her mother, Solange Tremblay, had multiple fractures to one leg and would need surgery, but otherwise was OK. An aviation safety expert said she likely was helped by being in a seat with a four-point restraint used by crew members.
“I’m still trying to understand how all this happened,” Lépine said, “but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her.”
The jet, carrying more than 70 passengers, was landing when it collided with a fire truck that was responding to a problem with another plane on Sunday night (New York time). The nose of the Air Canada plane was destroyed, and the pilot and co-pilot were killed.
Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti also described Tremblay’s survival as a miracle when “compared to the destruction of the nose of the airplane”.
“The flight attendant’s seat is kind of a jumpseat that folds down and is bolted to the wall, the same wall that the cockpit utilises,” said Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator.
“It’s a very robust seat,” he added. “It’s designed to withstand probably more crash loads than passenger seats because you need the flight attendant to help passengers get out of an airplane after a crash.”
Air Canada passenger Clément Lelièvre credited the pilots’ “incredible reflexes” with saving his life and others’. The flight crew braked extremely hard just as the plane touched down, he said.
The pilot and co-pilot who died were both based out of Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.
Jeannette Gagnier, the great aunt of one of the pilots, identified him as Antoine Forest. Forest considered her a grandmother figure and always wanted to be a pilot, she said. His LinkedIn page showed he had worked for two airlines for the past five years.
According to Canada’s national broadcaster, CBC, Forest was from Coteau-du-Lac in Quebec.
On the city’s Facebook page, members of the municipal council offered their “sincerest condolences to his family, loved ones and friends. We wish them all the comfort they need to get through this difficult time.”
CBC named the co-pilot as MacKenzie Gunther, citing Radio-Canada sources.
US President Donald Trump called it a “terrible” situation while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement the accident was “deeply saddening”.
The Port Authority identified the two people in the fire truck as Sergeant Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez. They suffered injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Garcia said. One was expected to be released shortly, while the other would stay in the hospital for observation, she said.
The fire truck was travelling across the runway to respond to a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odour”, said Garcia.
It was the first fatal crash at LaGuardia in 34 years, Garcia said.
In 2013, at least two flight attendants were injured when they were thrown from an Asiana Airlines flight that crashed into a seawall while landing at San Francisco International Airport. There were 291 people aboard the Asiana Boeing 777, and three girls were killed.
AP
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