The Air Canada Express jet had already landed safely when catastrophe struck. Rolling at taxi speed, it crossed Runway 4 just as a Port Authority rescue truck, cleared to respond to a separate emergency, entered its path. In the tower, a controller’s frantic shouts for “Truck 1” to stop came too late. The impact killed the pilot and co-pilot instantly and sent at least 40 people to hospitals, including two Port Authority officers with broken bones and a flight attendant violently ejected from the aircraft while still buckled into her seat.

On board were 72 passengers and four crew, many believed to be Orthodox Jews from the New York area, suddenly thrown into chaos amid twisted metal and fuel fumes. LaGuardia ground to a halt, with over 400 flights canceled and thousands stranded as investigators rushed in. Now, the NTSB’s “go team” will sift through cockpit recordings, tower clearances, and ground-movement data, trying to answer the question haunting every survivor: how did two vehicles, both cleared by professionals, meet in the same fatal strip of runway at the same terrible moment?