'Complete miracle' as flight attendant survives Air Canada crash after being thrown 100m from plane
Solange Tremblay was ejected more than 100 metres in the collision which killed the pilot and copilot
A flight attendant who was on an Air Canada flight that collided with a fire truck at New York's La Guardia airport on Sunday has survived after being thrown more than 100 metres from the aircraft in the crash.
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Solange Tremblay was found still strapped to her seat after being flung from the Jazz Aviation jet.
The CRJ-900 jet collided with a fire truck as it landed, killing both the pilot and co-pilot. Authorities said 41 people had been taken to hospital, including Tremblay, with 31 later discharged.
“It’s a complete miracle. At the moment of impact, her seat was ejected more than 100 metres from the plane. They found her and she was still strapped into her seat,” her daughter Sarah Lépine told Quebec’s TVA News.
“She had a guardian angel watching over her. It could have been much worse.”
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Lépine said her mother suffered multiple bone fractures and underwent surgery on a broken leg.
Tremblay began working for Jazz 26 years ago as a flight attendant, according to her social media profile.
Pilot Antoine Forest, 30, and co-pilot Mackenzie Gunther were killed after the passenger plane collided with a fire truck in the early hours of Monday morning.
Tributes have been paid to the hero Air Canada pilots who witnesses say saved passengers' lives during the horror collision – as shocking new footage shows the moment the plane crashed.
One passenger, Rebecca Liquori, told CNN she is “forever indebted” to the pilots' quick reflexes as they attempted to bring the plane to a halt.
“I think that their quick action and their bravery is the reason why I’m able to go home and hug my kids and get to experience having joy with them, because when I was on the plane I didn’t think that I would ever get to do that again,” she told The Times.
Shocking audio from the moments before the deadly incident has also been released by NBC New York.
The fire truck had been given permission to move onto the runway due to an issue with another plane.
But air traffic control quickly realised the truck was in the path of the ill-fated plane.
“Truck One, stop, stop, stop!” an air traffic controller can be heard saying.
Addressing the plane, the controller added: “JAZZ 646, I see you collided with the vehicle. Just hold position. I know you can't move. Vehicles are responding to you now.”
The controller then says they tried to reach out to the pilots of the crashed plane, but heard nothing back.
"I tried to reach out to them. We were dealing with an emergency, and I messed up.”
A pilot in a different plane then responds, telling the controller they “did everything they could.”
Jazz Aviation, owned by Chorus Aviation, is an independent regional airline that operates short-haul flights on behalf of Air Canada.
Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, said the collision was “deeply saddening”.