Flight Attendant Thrown, Still Strapped in Seat Survives LaGuardia Crash

A flight attendant who was still strapped into her seat survived being thrown from an Air Canada plane that collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, her daughter said Monday. Calling it a “complete miracle,” Sarah Lepine told Canadian broadcaster TVA Nouvelles that her mother, Solange Tremblay, suffered multiple fractures to one leg and will require surgery but was otherwise expected to recover.

“I’m still trying to understand how all this happened,” Lepine said.

“But she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her.”

“It’s a complete miracle. At the moment of impact, her seat was ejected more than 100 metres (300 feet) from the plane. They found her and she was still strapped into her seat,” her daughter Sarah Lépine told Quebec’s TVA News.

The regional jet, carrying more than 70 passengers, was landing late Sunday when it struck a fire truck responding to an issue on another aircraft. The collision destroyed the nose of the plane and killed the pilot and copilot. Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti told the Associated Press Tremblay’s survival was extraordinary given the extent of the damage.

He said flight attendants are typically seated in reinforced jump seats equipped with four‑point restraints designed to withstand extreme forces.

“The flight attendant’s seat is bolted to the wall and is very robust,” said Guzzetti, a former federal crash investigator.

“It’s designed to endure more crash loads than passenger seats because flight attendants need to be able to help passengers evacuate after an accident.” This article includes reporting by the Associated Press. This is a breaking news article.

Updates to follow.

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