Travelers from Atlanta and New Orleans are frustrated by long wait times at TSA security checkpoints during the partial government shutdown as spring break travel spikes. (WAGA, WVUE)
Flight cancellations and delays at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport are increasing after an Air Canada Express flight collided with a fire truck late Sunday night.
At least 295 flights from LaGuardia were canceled as of 10:30 a.m. ET on Monday, while 15 were delayed, according to data from flight tracking website FlightAware.
The tracker also showed that at least 288 flights bound for LaGuardia had been canceled as of 10:30 a.m. ET on Monday, and 19 had been delayed, according to FlightAware.
FlightAware’s figures show that between scheduled arrivals and departures from LaGuardia, a total of 582 flights were canceled and 34 delayed.
Debris hangs from a damaged Air Canada Express plane that collided with a ground vehicle at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York, on March 23, 2026. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
The Air Canada Express CRJ-900 aircraft, operated by the airline’s regional partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members and arrived from Montreal. It was designated as Flight 4686 and the collision crushed the nose of the plane.
According to Jazz and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, both the pilot and first officer were killed, while dozens of injuries were reported.
FRUSTRATED PASSENGERS lash out at long TSA lines; GOP MESSAGES TO THANK A DEMOCRAT
People sit in Terminal B of LaGuardia Airport after an Air Canada Express plane collided with a ground vehicle in Queens, New York, on March 23, 2026. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)
Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia said 32 of the 41 injured people have been released, while nine remained hospitalized with “serious injuries.”
Garcia said the fire truck was responding to a separate United Airlines plane that had declared a state of emergency when it “reported an odor problem.”
Audio from air traffic control indicated that the fire truck had been cleared to cross runway 4, on taxiway “Delta”, before air traffic controllers frantically tried to stop the fire truck.
TSA UNION LEADER WARNS AIRPORT SECURITY RISKS WILL GET ‘WORSE’ AS MAJOR TRAVEL EVENTS OCCUR
Stranded travelers sleep on the ground while their flights were canceled after an Air Canada Express plane collided with a ground vehicle at LaGuardia Airport in Queens, New York, on March 23, 2026. (Bing Guan/Reuters)
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it was deploying a team of experts to investigate the incident, while the Federal Aviation Administration said the airport was expected to remain closed until 2 p.m. ET.
LaGuardia is one of the busiest airports in the country. According to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, it served more than 30 million passengers per year by 2025, with a wide range of airlines operating at the airport.
A screen at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport shows canceled flights to New York’s LaGuardia Airport after an Air Canada Express plane collided with a ground vehicle there on March 23, 2026 in Arlington, Virginia. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
GET FOX BUSINESS ON THE GO BY CLICKING HERE
The flight disruptions resulting from the LaGuardia incident come amid travel disruptions caused by the weeks-long partial shutdown of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which has led to an increase in worker absenteeism at airport security checkpoints.
Reuters contributed to this report.
