The Air Canada pilots who were killed at LaGuardia Airport have been identified
“I feel like the pilots saved our lives,” one passenger told CNN
The two pilots who were killed while landing an Air Canada flight at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport this week have been identified.
Antoine Forest, from Coteau-du-Lac, near Montreal and Mackenzie Gunther, who graduated from Toronto’s Seneca Polytechnic in 2023, had been flying in the cockpit of the plane. It collided with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle on the tarmac.
Forest was the flight’s captain and Gunther was the first officer, according to CBC.
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“You’d come and go in a flash, always with new projects in mind. You’ve left us in a flash again, too soon for us to say goodbye. I love you, my brother. You can leave with your head held high,” Forest’s brother, Cédric, wrote in a Facebook post.
In a media release shared by Seneca, the school confirmed that Gunther had graduated from its Aviation Technology program. Flags at all Seneca campuses have been lowered to half-mast today.
“Seneca sends our deepest condolences to Mr. Gunther’s family and friends, and to his former colleagues and professors. He will be deeply missed,” the announcement said.
Forty-one people were taken to hospital for treatment, but there were no reported passenger deaths from the accident.
Rebecca Liquori, who was on the flight, told CNN that she feels “forever indebted” to the pilots, whose instincts likely prevented an even greater tragedy.
“I feel like the pilots saved our lives. They’re the reasons I was able to make it home safe to see my boys, and my heart goes out to their families,” she said.
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Carly Lewis is a journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times and the New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Wired, Interview Magazine, Pitchfork, Elle, and Maclean’s, where she is a contributing editor. Her work has been recognized by the National Magazine Awards and the Digital Publishing Awards. She reports on city life, culture—including what people do online—politics, art and crime. She received the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award for “The Murder of Ashley Wadsworth,” an investigative feature about a Canadian teenager who was killed by a man she met on social media, published by Maclean’s.
