A flight attendant aboard the Air Canada flight, which crashed at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, became the center of an unimaginable story.
She was among the 72 passengers and four crew members who took off from Montreal Trudeau International Airport on Sunday night.
As they reached their destination, the night took a horrifying turn that no one on board expected.
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Just before midnight, the Air Canada Express flight slammed into a fire truck on the runway.
The plane “smashed into the center of the very large fire truck,” a source told NBC News.
The impact left the pilot and co-pilot in the aircraft’s battered nose with fatal injuries.
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Meanwhile, passengers were in the cabin screaming and recovering from the sudden shock.
Rescuers scrambled to bring the passengers to safety and found one flight attendant ejected from the plane upon impact.
She “was in her jump seat near the front” of the ill-fated Flight 8646, the NBC News source said.
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Rescuers reportedly found her still strapped to the seat in the wreckage outside the plane.
She was “injured, but she’s going to be okay,” the source added.
“So that’s just sort of an incredible story in terms of the level of impact and the sheer luck that this flight attendant was able to survive after the part of the aircraft was sheared apart,” he continued.
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Passengers recalled hearing a “boom” all of a sudden when the flight slammed into the vehicle on the runway.
“One of our friends was like several rows back from us and like we walked past him on our way out because he was trying to find his glasses and his nose was totally broken and bleeding on his face,” one passenger told WABC.
She said “a lot of people smacked their head against the seat in front of them.”
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Another passenger said they were allowed to leave after their bruises were “checked out.”
“We’re just tired and want to go to bed,” the passenger said.
Authorities confirmed that 41 passengers and crew members were taken to the hospital. And 32 of them were eventually allowed to leave after receiving medical attention.
The two people in the fire truck were also taken to the hospital and were reportedly in stable condition.
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In the events that led to the horror crash, an audio clip from the air traffic control room revealed that the truck was responding to an issue raised by United Flight 2384.
The United pilots reported an odor in the cabin that was making the flight attendants sick. This led to the fire truck being granted permission to cross Runway 4 at Taxiway D and steer towards the United Airlines flight.
“Truck one and company cross 4 at Delta,” an air traffic controller was heard saying.
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Within moments, the controller’s voice turned frantic and warned the truck to stop.
“Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop stop,” the panicking controller said. “Stop Truck One, stop, stop Truck One, stop.”
He was then heard addressing the pilot of the mangled Air Canada plane.
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“Jazz 646 I see you’ve collided with a vehicle here just hold position, I know you can’t move. The vehicles are responding to you now,” he said.
The controller continued giving instructions to other pilots and asked a Delta Airlines flight to “go around” the wreckage.
“That wasn’t good to watch,” a Frontier Airlines pilot later said.
The pilot of another airline was heard consoling the distressed air traffic controller
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“Yeah I know I was here, I tried to reach out to them I stopped and we were dealing with an emergency here earlier and I messed up,” the controller said, prompting the Frontier Airlines pilot to console him.
“No man, you did the best you could,” the pilot said.
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