NEW YORK (AP) — Investigators are working to determine what caused a deadly collision between a jet and a fire truck on the runway at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport. Here’s what to know about the crash and the investigation:
An Air Canada regional flight arrived from Montreal around 11:37 p.m. Sunday and struck an airport fire truck, which was crossing the runway to check on an unusual odor reported on another plane.
It was busier than a typical Sunday night at LaGuardia. Because of flight delays, the airport saw nearly 70 takeoffs and landings after 10 p.m. -- more than double the 31 that were scheduled, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. No planes took off after 11:09 p.m., but planes continued to land every few minutes in misty, somewhat foggy conditions.
About 20 seconds before the collision, air traffic control cleared the truck to cross the runway — but then, about 11 seconds later, a controller started repeatedly telling the truck to stop, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Doug Brazy said Tuesday. It's not yet clear whether the truck's driver heard the call.
Audio recordings from the airport control tower later captured an unnamed controller saying: “I messed up.”
The impact crushed the cockpit, sheared the nose off the plane and rolled the mangled fire truck onto its side. Passengers worked together to open emergency exit doors, slide off the plane's wings and help others to safety.
The pilot and co-pilot were the only confirmed fatalities among the roughly six dozen people aboard the flight, operated by Jazz Aviation on behalf of Air Canada. Officials haven't released the victims' names, but a family member identified one of the dead as Antoine Forest.
About 40 people were taken to hospitals, where some sustained serious injuries. Two emergency responders traveling in the fire truck were also injured.
Most of the injured people were quickly released, but some remained hospitalized, including a flight attendant who was thrown from the plane and found, still buckled into her seat, many yards (meters) away, according to her daughter.
Federal investigators don't know yet. They're planning to analyze the plane’s cockpit and flight data recorders, interview the air traffic controllers and firefighters, and look into issues that range from control tower staffing to electronics meant to prevent runway collisions, according to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy.
“We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure” instead of a cascade of problems, she noted at a news conference Tuesday.
The Federal Aviation Administration last year encouraged airports with runway alert systems like LaGuardia's to install transmitters in airport vehicles. Some airports have the devices, but LaGuardia's system instead tracked the truck with radar — and didn't produce an alert, Homendy said.
That alert system is only one of various safeguards at LaGuardia. For example, it also has lights in runway pavement that turn red when an aircraft is approaching, so that vehicles can steer clear. Those lights apparently were working, Homendy said.
The control tower also affords a physical view of the runway. Two controllers were working there, covering what are often four different jobs, Homendy said. That form of double duty is common on overnight shifts at airports around the country, but investigators will probe whether that makes sense at a busy airport such as LaGuardia.
The NTSB has raised general concerns in the past about fatigue on overnight shifts in control towers, but Homendy said there's no indication so far that it was a factor in Sunday's collision.
Canada has also sent investigators to look into the crash.
LaGuardia — one of the 20 busiest airports in the United States — was shut down after Sunday’s crash. One runway reopened Monday afternoon, and that remained the state of operations on Tuesday, when about a quarter of the airport's scheduled flights were canceled and major delays continued.
The crash and temporary closure were the latest misery for U.S. airports struggling with long security lines amid a standoff over federal Department of Homeland Security funding. It doesn't directly affect air traffic controllers; they work for the FAA, which is under the Department of Transportation. They have faced challenges of their own in recent years. A chronic shortage of controllers means that many routinely work overtime in a stressful job.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy described LaGuardia's tower as generally “well-staffed.”
Aircraft maintenance workers arrive to inspect the wreckage of an Air Canada Express jet, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, just off the runway where it had collided with a Port Authority fire truck Sunday night at LaGuardia Airport in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Aircraft maintenance workers arrive to inspect the wreckage of an Air Canada Express jet, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, just off the runway where it had collided with a Port Authority fire truck Sunday night at LaGuardia Airport in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — An exit poll pointed to a disappointing showing for the party of Denmark’s prime minister in an election Tuesday, after a campaign that focused on bread-and-butter issues rather than her handling of the crisis over U.S. President Donald Trump 's ambitions toward Greenland.
All three parties in Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen's government looked set to lose ground, according to a poll conducted by the Megafon research institute for broadcaster TV 2. It suggested that left-leaning and right-leaning blocs were likely to fall short of a majority in parliament.
If that is the case, experienced Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen — a former prime minister — could play the role of kingmaker. His centrist Moderate party could determine whether Frederiksen can serve a third term at the helm of the European Union and NATO country of some 6 million people.
The 48-year-old Frederiksen is known for strong support of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion and for a restrictive approach to migration — continuing what has become a tradition in Danish politics.
The poll showed Frederiksen’s center-left Social Democrats remaining the biggest single party with about 21% of the vote, well below the 27.5% they took in the 2022 election.
Frederiksen called the election in February, several months before she had to. She apparently hoped that her resolute image in the standoff over Trump’s push for control of Greenland, rallying European allies behind Denmark, would help her with voters.
Her support had previously waned as the cost of living rose, something that, along with pensions and a potential wealth tax, has been a prominent campaign issue.
Social Democrat lawmaker Morten Klessen said the outgoing government had performed well, but that “there’s been a lot of trouble in Europe and I think our government has had a lot of focus about Ukraine and I think we have lost a little bit in domestic votes for that." He argued that “we need Mette Frederiksen in Europe for solidarity.”
No single party was expected to come anywhere near winning a majority. Denmark’s system of proportional representation typically produces coalition governments, traditionally made up of several parties from either the “red bloc” on the left or the “blue bloc” on the right, after weeks of negotiations.
Frederiksen’s outgoing administration was the first in decades to cross the left-right divide.
Caroline Stage Olsen, a former minister seeking election for the Moderates, argued that “a large part of the Danish population wants a center-focused government.”
She said that "difficult times call for cooperation and call for the parties and for politicians to gather up, man up, woman up and cooperate.”
Two center-right challengers hoped to oust Frederiksen as prime minister. One is in her current government — Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen of the Liberal, or Venstre, party, which headed several recent administrations but also appeared on course to win fewer seats Tuesday.
The other was Alex Vanopslagh, 34, of the opposition Liberal Alliance, which calls for lower taxes and less bureaucracy, and for Denmark to abandon its refusal to use nuclear power.
Further to the right, the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party was set to improve significantly on its very weak showing at the last election in 2022.
Greenland, which took up much of the government’s energy in recent months, wasn't a significant issue in the campaign because there is broad agreement on its place in the kingdom.
Frederiksen warned in January that an American takeover of Greenland would amount to the end of NATO. But the crisis has simmered down, at least for now.
After Trump backed down on threats to impose tariffs on Denmark and other European countries that opposed the U.S. taking control of the vast Arctic island, the U.S., Denmark and Greenland started technical talks on an Arctic security deal.
Denmark’s single-chamber parliament, the Folketing, has 179 seats. Of those, 175 go to lawmakers from Denmark itself and two each to representatives from thinly populated Greenland and the kingdom’s other semiautonomous territory, the Faroe Islands.
More than 4.3 million were eligible to vote.
Moulson reported from Berlin. James Brooks in Copenhagen, Denmark contributed to this report.
Ballots will be sorted at the end of the general election in Aalborg, Denmark, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Danish Prime Minister and Leader of the Social Democrats Mette Frederiksen meets voters at a rally in her support in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
Jacob Engel Schmidt from the Moderates reacts to the first exit poll during the Danish election for the parliament in Copenhagen, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Rasmus Flindt Pedersen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Members of The Social Democrats react to the first exit poll during the Danish election for the parliament in Copenhagen, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Leader of the Moderates Lars Loekke Rasmussen, center left, and leader of the Danish People's Party Morten Messerschmidt , center, right, speak during TV2's party leader debate 'The Last Answer' in the Common Hall at Christiansborg, in Copenhagen, Monday, March 23, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
A person exits a polling booth at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A man casts a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
A woman holds a ballot at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
People line up to receive their ballots at a polling station at City Hall in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during the general election. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
FILE - Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)
FILE - Denmark's Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of European Union defense ministers at the European Council building in Brussels, Feb. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Harry Nakos, File)
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, center, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, right, and Pia Olsen Dyhr, left, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, left, and Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, right, attend the party leader debate Democracy's Evening on DR1 at the Concert Hall, DR City in Copenhagen, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix via AP)
