A separate BBC update laid out the broader sequence of events. According to that timeline, the Air Canada flight departed Montreal at 10:12 p.m. ET, more than two hours behind schedule.

Minutes before 11:40 p.m., a Port Authority rescue and firefighting vehicle was dispatched to assist with a separate issue involving a plane at LaGuardia that had requested support. At about that same time, the aircraft collided with the truck on the ground while landing.

Emergency crews responded right away after the impact. By 3:09 a.m., LaGuardia said the airport was closed because of the incident, and around 3:30 a.m., the first portion of the National Transportation Safety Board team arrived.

At 4:48 a.m., Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia said two Air Canada pilots had died, and nine people remained in the hospital. Two Port Authority police officers were also badly injured.

Additionally, she said the airport would stay closed until at least 2:00 p.m. local time so investigators could continue processing the scene. Federal and local investigations are now underway.

A Routine Flight, Until It Wasn’t

The final seconds before touchdown were ordinary enough, and that may be what makes this story so chilling. For 22-year-old Jack Cabot, it was just another flight back from Montreal. Then, in what he later described as a “crazy 12 seconds,” everything changed.

Air Canada’s Bombardier CRJ-900 was landing at LaGuardia just before midnight when disaster struck. The aircraft collided with a Port Authority fire engine that was responding to an unrelated emergency call.

The aftermath was devastating. In addition to the plane’s two pilots being killed, and dozens of people left injured, one flight attendant was reportedly hurled 300 feet from the aircraft while still strapped into her jump seat.

In the hours that followed, details began to emerge about the collision, the frantic emergency response, and the wreckage left behind.

When the Cabin Turned Into Chaos

But for Cabot, the most unforgettable part of that night wasn’t only the impact itself…it was what happened inside the plane once the chaos fully set in.

In his Fox News interview, Cabot said the flight had seemed perfectly routine until the moment the wheels hit the ground. “It was a regular flight,” he said. “Everybody braces for impact, and there is always a little bit of sense of nervousness as any plane comes in for landing.”

Then came the instant when normal vanished: “Pretty quickly as we touched the ground, it all felt very wrong.” He said the brakes seemed to slam hard almost immediately. Then came the noise no passenger ever wants to hear.

“It was just a very loud bang,” Cabot recalled. “We all pretty much just didn’t know whether we were going to make it.” That fear hit fast and hard. Cabot compared it to “being in a gigantic car crash at 200 miles an hour,” adding bluntly, “It’s not a good spot to be in.”

And the whole thing unfolded with terrifying speed. According to him, it all happened in “three or four seconds” from landing to hitting the truck.

That split-second timeline lines up with what he told the New York Post, where he gave an even more vivid picture of those final moments.

“It felt like the landing was immediately off,” Cabot said. “There was an incredibly loud bang. It was a really, really hard landing.” He was seated in 18A, near the wing on the left side and just in front of the escape route. Remarkably, he said he’d probably choose that seat again.

At first, though, nobody inside the cabin could fully understand what had happened; it was only after getting out that the scale of the damage became impossible to miss.

“As soon as you get out and see the entire front of the plane completely destroyed,” he said, “You quickly realize something has gone very wrong.” Inside the plane, the scene was even more harrowing, as Cabot said injuries were immediately visible all around him.

He remembered turning and seeing the passenger next to him with a bloody nose and a bleeding forehead. In his Post account, he described it even more starkly: there was “blood everywhere.”

And yet, amid that horror, something unexpected happened…

The Power of Humanity

Instead of total panic taking over, Cabot said fellow passengers began stepping in for one another. In those dark, disorienting moments, strangers started acting like a team.

“Some people really stepped up in that moment, they organized themselves as a group,” he revealed. On Fox, he described how passengers quickly formed a plan near the exit. “We’re going to hit the escape door, get everybody out, we’re gonna do this in a line, we’re gonna be organized,” he recalled hearing.

He was clearly struck by the fact that, in that moment, leadership came from the cabin itself. “There was nobody on the plane staff to help us at that point,” he said. That is where Cabot’s story takes a turn that has left so many people shaken and moved.

Because while the front of the plane had been destroyed and injured passengers were trapped, the people inside did not simply freeze; they helped, they improvised, and they comforted one another.

According to Cabot’s Post interview, passengers shared coats to keep each other warm, and one person even used a COVID mask to wipe blood from another passenger’s face.

He also recalled one especially touching moment involving a young girl who was traveling alone for the first time: An older British woman, he said, stayed by her side throughout the ordeal. If there is anything even remotely uplifting in a tragedy like this, it is buried in stories like that. Cabot put it simply: “There’s always some humanity. Always people trying their best [sic].”

That humanity mattered because the ordeal was far from over once the aircraft stopped moving. Cabot said it took about two hours for everyone to get off the plane.

Passengers near the front, he said, were badly stuck and needed significant help to get free. In other words, the terror did not end at impact. Even after surviving the collision, many were left injured, trapped, and waiting in a darkened cabin with little power.

Cabot said the front of the aircraft was “completely destroyed,” and from where he sat, it was difficult to fully see through the darkness.

The details become even more eerie when you realize how ordinary the flight had felt before everything went wrong. Cabot told the Post that earlier in the trip, the same flight attendant who was later thrown from the plane had handed him a beer. “It led to my new motto: ‘Sit in the middle of the plane and have a beer,'” he remarked of the surreal moment.

Cabot was also open about the fact that he is still shaken. “I’m feeling particularly rattled,” he shared. “It’s not every day you get into a plane crash.”

Even so, he still considers himself lucky. He told both outlets that others were in much worse pain than he was, while he suffered whiplash and was waiting to learn whether he had a concussion.

And in a line that sounds almost impossibly resilient after a night like that, he also made clear he has no intention of letting the crash define him. Asked when he would fly again, his answer was simple: “As soon as I can. I don’t want to let this get in the way of my life.”

That may be the most startling thing of all: Not just that Cabot survived, but that after those “crazy 12 seconds,” after the bang, the blood, and the wreckage, what stayed with him most was the sight of strangers refusing to abandon one another.

A Sudden and Devastating Loss

In the days since the devastating LaGuardia crash, one detail after another has made the story even more emotional. And just when it seemed the public heartbreak could not deepen, an old Instagram post from pilot Antoine Forest began drawing fresh attention online.

As reported by CBC, Forest was identified as one of the pilots killed in the Sunday night crash at New York’s LaGuardia airport. The outlet reported that the Quebec resident was from Coteau-du-Lac, southwest of Montreal, and had been working for Jazz Aviation since December 2022.

Forest was the captain, while Mackenzie Gunther was the first officer. The Air Canada Express CRJ-900, operated by Jazz Aviation, had been traveling from Montreal to New York with 72 passengers and four crew members on board, and 41 people were taken to the hospital following the crash.

What Passengers Remember Most About Those Final Moments

The aftermath was chaotic, terrifying, and deeply tragic. But amid the horror, accounts from survivors have made one thing very clear: many state the pilots did everything possible to prevent an even greater loss of life.

One passenger, Ms. Liquori, told The New York Times that once she got off the plane, she understood the scale of what had happened. Her words were devastating and direct:

“They did everything they can to save us and they didn’t save themselves and they couldn’t save themselves [sic].”

Liquori continued, “Every time I close my eyes, my heart is racing, I just hear screaming.” It is the kind of quote that stays with you, especially as more is learned about the people in the cockpit.

Another passenger echoed that same feeling while speaking to The Sun. “I feel terrible about the pilots and [sic] I think they are honestly heroes,” he said.

He added, “The pilots greeted us and were very nice. They saved everybody on that plane.” That sentiment — heroism, calm, sacrifice — has become central to how many are remembering Forest.

And that is part of why an older social media post of his has suddenly taken on a much heavier meaning. It is not just that he was a pilot; it is that the image appears to capture exactly why flying mattered to him in the first place.

A Personal Glimpse That Feels Different Now

In his Instagram post from October 2014, Forest shared a striking view from an aircraft in flight. The photo shows the bright white wing and engine of a plane cutting across a vast landscape below, with a deep blue sky stretching endlessly overhead.

The terrain beneath appears blanketed in autumn colors, giving the shot an almost cinematic quality. It is the kind of image that instantly makes you understand the pull of aviation: the freedom, the altitude, the beauty, the perspective.

Then came the caption, simple but suddenly heartbreaking in light of everything that followed. Forest wrote: “Why I want to be a pilot? Reasons no.5 and 14 #falls#twins.”

It is a short message, but one that has resonated powerfully after the crash. What may once have read like a casual, joyful reflection now feels like a deeply personal window into what he loved most about flying.

There is something especially emotional about the contrast. On one side is the public memory of the final flight — fear, impact, survival, loss — and on the other is this serene image of the sky, posted by a man who clearly saw aviation as something awe-inspiring.

That is likely why so many people have been drawn back to the post. Since news of the crash spread, many netizens have filled the comment section with messages of condolence, turning the old upload into a quiet memorial.

CBC also noted that Forest’s Facebook page included photos of him enjoying hiking, kayaking, sailing, and climbing. Even away from the cockpit, it seems he was someone who gravitated toward adventure, movement, and the outdoors.

His hometown community has also been mourning. On the city’s Facebook page, Coteau-du-Lac and members of the municipal council offered their “sincerest condolences to his family, loved ones and friends,” adding that they wished them comfort during this difficult time.

Taken together, the tributes, survivor accounts, and that resurfaced Instagram image create a portrait that feels painfully human. Not just a pilot in a headline, but a man who seemed to genuinely love the sky he worked in.

And perhaps that is why the 2014 post is now hitting so many people so hard. Long before the world knew his name, Forest had already shared a photo that said everything…he did not just fly planes, he felt flying.

At this time, we wish to extend our most heartfelt condolences to Forest’s entire family, loved ones, friends, community, and all who knew and loved him as they mourn such a significant loss. We also extend our condolences to the loved ones of the other life that was lost and hope for their healing. RIP, dear Forest and Gunther.