The crash at New York City’s LaGuardia airport between an Air Canada Bombardier CRJ‑900 commuter flight and a fire truck on the runway Sunday night tragically left two pilots dead and dozens injured. Luckily, there were 74 survivors, including, unbelievably, the two-member fire truck crew.
Forty-one passengers were hospitalized, most of them with minor injuries.
Perhaps even more unbelievable — and miraculous — however, is the story of flight attendant Solange Tremblay. She was strapped into her seat near the front of the plane when the impact struck, and as the nose of the jet was demolished, she was ejected while still in the seat and thrown over 300 feet onto the runway.
Not only did she survive, but she suffered only a fractured leg. When I say “only,” I don’t mean to minimize the injury, but knowing what happened to her, you would have assumed a far worse outcome.
If you don’t believe in miracles, maybe you will now.
Solange Tremblay, the flight attendant, is a living miracle. She was thrown 328 ft (≈100 meters) while still strapped into her jumpseat after the CRJ-900 collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday.
— Turbine Traveller (@Turbinetraveler) March 24, 2026
She is alive, and we pray for her recovery, truly unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/qCdKpXeAsW
But how did she survive such a violent impact? Her seat may have saved her:
Solange Tremblay was seated in her jump seat — which is specifically designed to withstand crashes — when Flight 8646 T-boned a Port Authority fire truck en route to an emergency around 11:40 p.m…
Jeff Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator, said Tremblay escaped largely unscathed because of the special seat, which has a four-point restraint.
“The flight attendant’s seat is kind of a jump seat that folds down and is bolted to the wall, the same wall that the cockpit utilizes,” said Guzzetti.
“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.”
Antoine Forest has been identified as one of the two pilots killed when a regional Air Canada jet collided with a Port Authority airport vehicle. Solange Tremblay, a flight attendant still strapped in her seat, survived being thrown from the plane. "She definitely has a guardian… pic.twitter.com/Fb0qlBqfHD
— Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) March 24, 2026
"She definitely has a guardian angel watching over her," Tremblay's daughter told Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles.
MORE: What DOT, NTSB Are Saying About the LaGuardia Crash
Sad Update to LaGuardia Crash: Two Dead, Dozens Hospitalized
Tremblay’s daughter, Sarah Lepine, told a Canadian news station that her mother’s survival was “a total miracle.”
“I’m still trying to understand how all this happened,” Lepine said, “but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her.”
“At the moment of impact, her seat was ejected more than 100 meters (328 feet) from the plane. They found her and she was still strapped into her seat,” she said.
We wish her a speedy recovery, and our hearts go out to the families of the pilots.
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