Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from Sakshi Venkatraman

Image source, Sakshi Venkatraman / BBC

There is finally some movement at LaGuardia after hours of standstill.

Security lines have now opened back up. Passengers are picking up their items from the floor and heading to their gates.

The flight board is showing more and more flights with actual departure times.

The first plane scheduled to leave LaGuardia appears to be a Frontier flight to Atlanta at 14:00 local time (18:00 GMT).

Almost all flights to and from LaGuardia had been cancelled in the immediate aftermath of the collision.

Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney says his thoughts are with the victims of the crash, their families, and everyone impacted.

"The collision involving an Air Canada Express aircraft last night in New York that claimed the lives of the pilot and co-pilot, and injured dozens more, is deeply saddening," Carney writes on social media.

He adds that Canadian officials are on the ground working closely with US authorities to investigate the incident.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from LaGuardia

Image source, Sakshi Venkatraman/BBC

More than a dozen federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, just walked through LaGuardia’s terminal B.

Some passengers waiting in the hallways to hear updates on their flights looked surprised to see them pass. I heard a couple of audible gasps.

For context, this terminal services both domestic and international flights.

President Donald Trump said yesterday that ICE agents will be assisting with airport security nationwide amid a partial government shutdown that has cut off funding the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One this morning, President Donald Trump says the LaGuardia crash is "terrible".

"They made a mistake. It's a dangerous business. That's terrible," he says.

Image source, Reuters

Pratiksha Ghildial
Reporting from LaGuardia Airport

Driving around Terminal B at LaGuardia, we see TV crews camped out in the rain.

There is barely any traffic as you drive up to the terminal - a very unusual sight here.

Image source, Pratiksha Ghildial / BBC

At baggage claim, the carousels are not working and there are very few people inside Terminal C.

There is a family perched on the floor with their baggage next to a poster that says "La Guardia awarded best new airport terminal in the world".

The child with them seems asleep under a white blanket.

A team of federal investigators is on-site at LaGuardia Airport, examining exactly what happened during the fatal collision.

Among other things, the National Transportation Safety Board will look at the speed the plane was moving, the staffing of the air traffic control tower at the time, and whether anybody was ejected from the aircraft.

Former chair of the NTSB, Robert Sumwalt, told the BBC's US partner CBS News that the agency will look through air traffic control tapes, radar tapes, and cockpit voice recorder tapes from the airplane during the investigation.

"They will have witness interviews, they'll interview the controllers," he told CBS Mornings. "So they will have a lot to be able to go on."

Sumwalt estimates the investigation will take between 12 and 18 months.

Canada's Transportation Safety Board also announced it will deploy a team of investigators, "pursuant to international agreements"; the flight involved in the collision was operated by Air Canada and Jazz.

Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani has addressed the investigation and said his office remained "in close contact with federal, state, and local partners".

Audio from the air traffic control tower at LaGuardia reveals what was said in the seconds before the crash.

You can hear an air traffic controller giving directions and then all of a sudden they frantically tell a truck to stop repeatedly as beeping goes off. The audio then ends.

The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) has issued a statement describing the fatal incident as a "profound tragedy".

"These pilots dedicated their careers to the safe transport of passengers, and we are all thinking of their families, loved ones, and colleagues at Jazz Aviation during this devastating time," said Capt. Jason Ambrosi, the association's president.

“ALPA's accident investigation team is on scene assisting the National Transportation Safety Board with its work, and our Critical Incident Response Program is working to support ALPA members and the families involved.”

ALPA is the world's largest airline pilot union, representing more than 80,000 pilots in North America.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from LaGuardia Airport

Image source, Sakshi Venkatraman / BBC

Passengers have been constantly checking the flight board, which up until this point has displayed every single flight as cancelled.

That’s changed now, with a few flights displaying departure times at noon and 14:00 local time.

It’s unclear how that will work given that the airport is only slated to re-open at 14:00 (18:00 GMT). Security and baggage services are still shuttered.

The people that I’ve talked to say they are preparing to be here all day.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from LaGuardia Airport

Image source, Sakshi Venkatraman / BBC

It’s been a long night for Katie Rojas, 26, whose flight to Chicago was on the runway and ready to depart when the Air Canada incident grounded all planes.

“It tried taking off twice and both times literally stopped in its tracks,” she tells me, adding that after two and a half hours of waiting onboard, pilots announced that the plane was being evacuated.

“They said there was a smell coming from the plane. I don’t know if that was just something they were saying.”

Once she deboarded and got back to the terminal, Rojas saw swarms of emergency vehicles in the area. She learned about the accident online later.

United Airlines re-booked her on a flight for 07:00 today, which was also cancelled. Now she has been re-booked again for a 15:20 flight, but security is closed and there’s no way to check her bags.

She has been camped out on the floor of the airport now for 12 hours, just waiting to get home.

“It’s scary,” she said of the accident. “You never know if it could have been one of us.”

Flights have now resumed at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, one of the three major airports servicing New York City, following a temporary pause due to an unrelated incident.

An earlier advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said the "ground stop" closure was due to a "tower evacuation", with reports of a burning smell coming from an elevator about 07:30 local time (11:30 GMT).

The advisory was removed from the FAA's website by 09:00 local time.

The pause put further strain on New York's transport connections, with two of the city's three major airports temporarily out of action at the same time.

Travellers had already faced hours-long airport security queues in recent days due to an ongoing partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from LaGuardia Airport

Leo Medina, 23, was on the tarmac expecting to take off to Miami last night when he looked out the window and saw the collision that killed two pilots on an Air Canada plane.

“We were literally like 100 meters away,” says Medina, who is from Chile but working in the US for a few months. “It was like the plane got cut in half.”

He adds: “At first I was like 'what’s happening, I don’t get it' and then there were a lot of ambulances and stuff.”

Medina says his flight, which was about to take off, had to return to the gate. He and his friend Diego Chavarría have now been waiting in the airport for 12 hours, sleeping on the floor on a bed of jackets.

“We’ve just been trying to make it work, sleeping,” Medina says. “Starbucks is the only place that’s open.”

He’s anxious, he says, especially after witnessing the accident, but his flight has been rescheduled to 2:30 in the afternoon and he says he still hopes to make it to Miami.

The full extent of damage to an Air Canada Express plane and a firefighting vehicle has been made clearer by daylight images of the crash.

Some of the latest pictures from the scene show debris hanging from the nose of the plane, while the emergency vehicle involved in the crash lies a few metres away on its side.

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Image source, Reuters

Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from LaGuardia Airport

Travelling to the US from South Korea, Ja Hyun tells me the flight cancellations have left her with no idea what to do next.

She has been at the airport for several hours now trying to fly to Chicago for business. Her original flight was supposed to depart at 07:00 local time (11:00 GMT), but it was cancelled. She was then placed on a 10:00 flight which was also cancelled.

"When I heard about the accident I was worried," she tells me.

I asked what she’s going to do now. "I’m not sure," she replies.

Across New York, flights have also been temporarily paused at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey.

An advisory from the Federal Aviation Administration said the "ground stop" closure was due to a "tower evacuation", with reports of a burning smell coming from an elevator around 07:30 local time (11:30 GMT).

The pause will put further strain on New York's transport connections, with two of the city's three major airports now out of action. John F. Kennedy International Airport remains open as usual.

It comes as travellers have faced hours-long airport security queues in recent days as a partial government shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security continues.

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Image source, AFP via Getty Images

Mayor of New York City Zohran Mamdani says he has "been briefed on the tragic collision" at LaGuardia Airport.

"I am grateful to our first responders, whose swift actions saved lives," he says.

He adds that the National Transportation Safety Board "is investigating the incident, and the City is in close contact with federal, state, and local partners".

New York Governor Kathy Hochul calls the incident "heartbreaking". She adds: "Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and everyone affected."


Image source, Getty Images

We've just heard from US Transport Secretary Sean Duffy, who says that his "prayers this morning are with the families impacted by the ground collision at LaGuardia".

He confirms some of the information given by the Port Authority this morning, and adds that "at least 2 Port Authority firefighters sustained serious injuries".

"We will continue to work closely with the National Transportation Safety Board and share additional updates as soon as possible," Duffy adds.

Sakshi Venkatraman
Reporting from LaGuardia Airport

I’m at LaGuardia Airport's Terminal B, where on a typical day several Air Canada flights arrive and depart.

Today, it’s chaos.

A board shows that every departing flight this morning has been cancelled. Confused passengers are huddled on benches or sleeping on the floor. Many have small children with them.

Some people are on the phone desperately trying to sort out their travel plans. Others are just waiting in hope that the airport opens back up.

LaGuardia is no stranger to flight delays, but this is another level. Nothing is moving. There are no lines, no cars outside, and there are hardly any airline personnel to direct people.

The airport is truly shut for the moment.

Image source, Reuters

As we've been reporting, the Air Canada plane collided with a vehicle that was responding to "a separate incident" on Runway 4 of LaGuardia Airport.

We've heard some more detail about this separate incident from Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia.

The "vehicle was responding to another aircraft, operated by United, that had reported an issue with odour," according to Garcia.

She later said that the "a pilot, who had had multiple attempts at take-off, requested support. They were responding to that request."

Freya Scott-Turner
Live reporter

Image source, Reuters

Officials are still piecing together what caused an Air Canada Express plane to crash into a vehicle on the tarmac of one of the United States' busiest airports.

Here's a look back at how it unfolded:

22:12 ET (02:12 GMT): Air Canada flight AC8646 departs Montreal, Canada, over two hours late, according to tracking website FlightAware.

"Minutes before" 23:40: A Port Authority rescue and firefighter vehicle is called to a separate issue on a plane at LaGuardia Airport in New York, that had "requested support".

At approximately 23:40: The plane collides with the firefighter vehicle on the ground while landing at LaGuardia.

23:40: Emergency services "immediately responded".

03:09: LaGuardia Airport says that the "airport is currently closed" due to the incident.

At around 03:30: The "first portion" of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) - the investigation team - arrives.

04:48: Port Authority Chief Executive Kathryn Garcia holds a press conference, confirming that two Air Canada pilots have been killed, and nine people remain in hospital.

Looking ahead:

14:00: Officials say this is the earliest time that LaGuardia Airport could reopen, as the investigation is still currently under way on site.