Joseph Attoh 
The pilots were identified as Antoine Forest, 30, and Mackenzie Gunther. They were the only two fatalities in the plane’s collision with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
They were two young men inside the cockpit of a feeder plane taking passengers on a routine hop from Montreal to New York City, the last flight before the start of another workweek.
But when the Air Canada Express jet that Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther were piloting approached LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night, around 11:36 p.m., nothing could have prepared them for what they encountered. As they landed on Runway No. 4 at about 150 miles per hour, a fire truck crossed at an intersection before them.
The plane hit the truck, and the pilots died at the scene, the front of the plane torn off in the collision.
“Two young men at the start of their career,” said Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration. “Two young pilots,” said Gov. Kathy Hochul, who “left their homes expecting to return to their families, and they will not.”
The two Canadian pilots were identified on Tuesday, as officials from the National Transportation Safety Board suggested that a series of failures resulting from problems with staffing and technology led to the deadly collision on the runway.
In all, 72 passengers and four crew members were onboard Flight 8646 from Montreal. More than 40 people were sent to area hospitals, though most were released within hours. The firefighters in the truck were injured but survived, as did a flight attendant who was ejected from the plane and found still strapped in her seat.
A former bush pilot who fought forest fires in Quebec, Mr. Forest, 30, had worked for Jazz Aviation, which operated the Air Canada Express plane, since December 2022, according to his LinkedIn profile. Mr. Forest’s great-aunt, Jeannette Gagnier, confirmed his death to The New York Times.
Mr. Forest was like a grandson to her, she said.
Mr. Forest’s brother, Cédric Forest, paid homage to his brother on social media.
“Have a good flight, my brother,” Cédric Forest posted in French on Facebook on Monday night. “We’ve heard this phrase often, but this time will be the last. You’d come and go like the wind, your head filled with new plans. You again left like the wind too soon for us to say goodbye. I love you, my brother. You can leave with your head held high.”
Mr. Gunther, the first officer on the flight, graduated in 2023 from the aviation technology program at Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto, the college said in a statement, before embarking on his professional flying career. On Tuesday, the college lowered its flags on campus in Mr. Gunther’s memory.
“It was an aviation disaster the likes of which we have not seen here in over three decades,” Governor Hochul said at a news conference Monday afternoon. “But it’s a deeply human story where two young pilots left their homes expecting to return to their families, and they will not, and this is what pains everyone.”
Before the jet landed, a United Airlines aircraft at LaGuardia had experienced an aborted takeoff and had called for the deployment of the fire truck, said Mr. Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration. Air traffic controllers gave both the Air Canada pilots and the fire truck permission to access the runway and may have been distracted, according to audio from the traffic tower.
“These were two young men at the start of their career, so it’s an absolute tragedy that we’re sitting here with their loss,” Mr. Bedford said of the pilots, expressing his sympathies to their families at the news conference on Monday.
Passengers described hearing a loud grinding sound as the pilots tried to slow the plane down. Seconds later, they were jolted forward as the plane collided with the fire truck as it crossed the runway. The nose of the plane was torn apart.
“They did everything they can to save us, and they didn’t save themselves. And they couldn’t save themselves,” said Rebecca Liquori, 35, who was sitting in seat 19A.
Mr. Forest is from Coteau-du-Lac, a small city in southwestern Quebec.
“Everybody knew someone who knew him or his family,” Andrée Brosseau, the city’s mayor, said in an interview.
“It’s a tragedy,” she added. “They had their entire lives ahead of them. They were both so young.”
Mr. Forest’s passion for flying stood out even among other students at the Quebec Aeronautical Training Center in Chicoutimi, Quebec, where he learned to fly, said Steeve Noreau, the center’s director.
“He was a very good student, always smiling,” Mr. Noreau said, adding that he was always conscious of safety and always complied with the standards.
Mr. Forest graduated from the school in 2018, with a specialty as a bush pilot, Mr. Noreau said.
“He loved the outdoors, he loved fishing, so becoming a bush pilot was a good way to be in nature,” Mr. Noreau said. “A bush pilot doesn’t have a control tower or a runway with lights. You learn to read the wind on lakes and you have to figure out where you’re going to land. A bush pilot is resourceful.”
After graduation, Mr. Forest flew planes carrying tourists above the Saguenay Fjord in Quebec, Mr. Noreau said.
“Antoine knew how to reassure people, always smiling, always able to put people at ease,” said Marisol Tremblay, a hairdresser, who worked seasonally with Mr. Forest at Air Saguenay. Ms. Tremblay was an excursions sales rep for tourists arriving on cruise ships on the Saguenay River in Eastern Quebec and said that Mr. Forest flew the planes.
The two last spoke about a year ago, and Ms. Tremblay said she was not surprised to see him living his dream as an airline pilot.
Mr. Forest also flew planes for Quebec’s Forest Fire Protection Agency between 2021 and 2022, spotting and directing other planes to fight forest fires, said Karine Pelletier, a spokeswoman for the agency.
In 2022, he joined Jazz Aviation, which operates regional flights for Air Canada Express.
“After four, five years at a feeder airline, some pilots go work for a major airline, where they might fly an Airbus 330, eventually an Airbus 350, on international fights,” Mr. Noreau said. “Antoine would have probably ended up on one of those big planes one day.”
Source: www.nytimes.com
About The Author
Joseph Otsibah 
