Pilots killed in jet collision with fire truck on LaGuardia runway identified

The pilots killed in Sunday's collision between a plane and a fire truck on a runway in New York were two young, ambitious Canadian men that had long dreamed of becoming pilots.

The pilots killed in Sunday's collision between a plane and a fire truck on a runway in New York were two young, ambitious Canadian men that had long dreamed of becoming pilots.

Mackenzie Gunther and Antoine Forrest were operating the Air Canada jet that was landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday when it collided with a fire truck. Officials still haven’t identified the two men publicly, but a family member who spoke to The Associated Press and a Canadian college that one of the men attended separately confirmed their identities.

About 40 of the roughly 70 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.

“These were two young men at the start of their careers,” FAA Administrator Brian Bedford told reporters Monday. “It’s an absolute tragedy that we’re sitting here with their loss.”

An investigation is underway into the cause. Federal officials said on Tuesday that a runway warning system failed to sound an alarm moments before the collision, and are looking into the role of the air traffic controllers and what they were doing while juggling a late night emergency involving another plane. The crash occurred during an already messy time at U.S. airports because of a partial government shutdown.