Robert A. Clifford, founder and senior partner of Clifford Law Offices and internationally recognized plaintiffs’ attorney, commented on the latest aviation tragedy that occurred at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late on Sunday, March 22, 2026, leaving the two pilots dead and several others injured. LaGuardia Airport has been shut down until at least this afternoon, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
An Air Canada Express jet reportedly crashed into an Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) truck on a runway at about 11:40 p.m. on March 22, 2026, killing both pilots and critically injuring four firefighters. It is being reported that a flight attendant in her seat was ejected through the front of the plane and was taken by first responders to a nearby hospital. It is also reported that at least 32 people on board were transported with injuries to local hospitals, some with serious injuries.
“The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is beginning its investigation today and will hopefully soon disclose the basic facts about what happened and, within a year, determine what should be done to avoid these needless deaths and injuries. While we wait for the official NTSB information, the publicly available versions of the FAA Air Traffic Control (ATC) audio recordings for this crash appear to indicate that the ATC controller may have cleared the ARFF vehicle to cross the runway as the Air Canada jet was completing its landing on the runway,” Clifford said. “This preliminary information at the very least highlights the continuing need for better and safer ATC and ground vehicle control systems and protocols to assure the safe movement of ARFF vehicles on airport surfaces.”
The Air Canada jet reportedly took off from Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
“This is not the first time airplane crew members and passengers and ground vehicle crewmembers have died or been injured by tragic crashes like this,” Clifford said. “The following similar crashes have left hundreds dead and injured over the years:
-1984 Aeroflot crash at Omsk Airport in the Soviet Union, where the airplane struck maintenance vehicles on the runway during landing, killing 178 people
-2013 Asiana crash at San Francisco International Airport, where an ARFF truck ran over and killed a 16-year-old female passenger who had exited or been thrown from airplane wreckage
-2022 LATAM crash of an Airbus 320 that hit an ARFF fire truck during the takeoff roll in Lima, Peru, killing 2 firefighters.
The FAA and others in the aviation industry must learn from these mistakes and develop better and more redundant means of preventing these ground accidents, especially late at night when visibility, fatigue, and other human performance issues may reduce safety.”
Clifford serves as Lead Counsel in the crash of a Boeing MAX8 737 jet that killed all 157 on board in 2019 and Co-Counsel in the January 2025 midair crash of an American Airlines jet and US Army helicopter in Washington, D.C., as well as the November 2025 crash of a UPS MD-11 in Louisville, Kentucky, that killed 15 people. He also represented several people who were injured in the 2013 Asiana crash. He has represented victims in every major commercial airline crash in the U.S. over the last five decades.
For further information or comments, contact Clifford Law Offices Communications Partner, Pamela Sakowicz Menaker at 847-721-0909 (cell) or Pammenaker@cliffordlaw.com.