Pilots killed in LaGuardia Airport runway collision identified as 2 “young men at the start of their careers”

Both Canadian pilots who died on Sunday track collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport were young, ambitious men early in their careers who had each been pursuing their dream of flying for years.

Captain Antoine Forrest and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther were piloting the Air Canada jet landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport when it collided with a fire truck, officials said Tuesday.

According to Air Canada, 39 passengers and crew members were injured when the arriving Air Canada Express plane collided with an emergency vehicle on a runway shortly before midnight Sunday. There were 72 passengers and a crew of four on board, arriving from Montreal.

“These were two young men early in their careers,” FAA Administrator Brian Bedford told reporters Monday. “It’s an absolute tragedy that we’re sitting here with their loss.”

The collision occurred after air traffic control apparently cleared the fire engine to cross the runway before telling it to stop, air traffic control recordings revealed. The plane was traveling about 100 mph when the collision occurred, sources told CBS News.

An investigation is underway into the causes of the collision. At a news conference Tuesday, the National Transportation Safety Board said no runway warning systems activated moments before the collision.

Air Canada said Tuesday that six of the 39 people injured were still hospitalized.

Antoine Forest

Jeannette Gagnier, the great-aunt of one of the pilots, identified him as Antoine Forest. Gagnier, who said Forest viewed her as a grandmotherly figure, told The Associated Press he always wanted to be a pilot. His LinkedIn page showed he had worked for two airlines in the past five years.

Forest’s Facebook page indicated that he was from Coteau-du-Lac, a small town in southwestern Quebec. The mayor of Coteau-du-Lac, Andrée Brosseau, presented her condolences to Forest’s family on Tuesday in a message translated from French.

“Antoine was one of us. In a community like ours, everyone knows someone who knew him. His death represents an immense loss for our entire community,” Brosseau wrote.

Antoine’s brother, Cédric Forest, shared a photo of him and his brother when they were children.

“Good flight, brother! Oh yes, we have heard this phrase many times, but this time it will be the last,” he wrote on Facebook. “You came and went in the wind, always full of new projects in mind. Left still in the wind too soon to say goodbye I love you my brother you can leave with your head held high.”

A woman who said she was Forest’s girlfriend and also a young pilot shared a photo of the couple on her Facebook account on Tuesday, captioning it “the love of my life.”

Mackenzie Gunther

Toronto-based Seneca Polytechnic said in a statement Tuesday that Gunther earned his honors bachelor’s degree in aviation technology in 2023.

He joined the Jazz Aviation Pathways program, a training program operated by Air Canada, immediately after graduating. The flight that crashed Tuesday was a Jazz Aviation plane operating on behalf of Air Canada.

“Seneca extends our deepest condolences to Mr. Gunther’s family and friends, as well as his former colleagues and teachers. He will be greatly missed,” the school’s message said.

The school lowered its flags to half-staff to honor Gunther on Tuesday.

Some said it was a miracle that more people were not injured, and at least one passenger, Clément Lelièvre, credited Gunther and Forest’s “incredible reflexes” with saving his and others’ lives. The pilots braked extremely hard just as the plane was landing, he said.