The tragic Air Canada incident at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday claimed two pilots’ lives. Now, a passenger, 22-year-old Jack Cabot, has given a haunting recollection of what happened inside the place, recalling “blood everywhere.”
The Bombardier CRJ-900 twin-jet, operating as Jazz Aviation Flight 8646 for a Canadian airline, was on its way from Montreal to New York with 76 passengers on board. But as the aircraft was landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York, things went horribly wrong.
According to flight tracking data, the plane was moving along Runway 4 at around 24 miles per hour when it struck a Port Authority truck. Aviation specialists say the Air Canada jet had the right of way at the time of the collision, meaning the runway should have been completely clear.
A passenger on the jet involved in the deadly crash at LaGuardia Airport said he witnessed people coming together to help each other in the moments after the accident.
22-year-old Jack Cabot described the chaotic scene, telling the NY Post there was “blood everywhere,” including on the passenger sitting beside him, who had facial injuries and a badly bleeding nose.
LaGuardia plane crash survivor recalls ‘haunting 12 seconds’ before deadly collision
Despite the panic, Cabot said many passengers immediately began helping one another.
“People really stepped up,” he said. “They worked together as a group.”
According to Jack Cabot, travelers shared clothing to keep warm, and one person even used a face mask to clean blood from another passenger’s face.
Cabot was seated in 18A, near the wing on the left side of the plane. He said it took nearly two hours for everyone to evacuate, and passengers seated closer to the front had the hardest time getting out, needing significant help to free themselves.
The crash killed both pilots and left dozens injured. One of the injured was a flight attendant who was thrown nearly 300 feet from the aircraft during the impact and was later found on the ground still strapped into her jump seat. The flight attendant, named Solange Tremblay, survived with her daughter, calling it a “miracle.”
Cabot said that earlier in the flight, the same flight attendant had given him a beer.
“It gave me a new motto: sit in the middle of the plane and have a beer,” he joked.
“People try their best to help each other”
He also remembered how, after the crash, a young girl traveling alone for the first time was comforted by an older British woman who stayed with her the entire time.
“There’s always humanity. People try their best to help each other,” the 22-year-old said, adding that everything seemed normal until the final moments.
“The last 12 seconds were crazy. The landing suddenly felt wrong. Then there was a huge bang, it was an extremely hard impact.”
Jack Cabot suffered a whiplash injury. He was being checked for a possible concussion, but still, he said he was fortunate-
“I was lucky,” he told the NY Post. “Some people were hurt much worse.”LaGuardia plane crash survivor describes ‘crazy 12 seconds’
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the pilot’s family and all those afffected by the horrifying crash.
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