‘It’s important to say their names’: American passenger thanks Canadian pilots after fatal runway crash

An American passenger who survived the fatal Air Canada flight at LaGuardia Airport is thanking the two Canadian pilots for saving people's lives.

Ottawa says it is cooperating with American officials to investigate the fatal Air Canada runway collision at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday that claimed the lives of two pilots and injured dozens of passengers and crew members.

Passengers like Rachel Mariotti still have so many unanswered questions about the tragedy days after the plane was evacuated on the tarmac and she had to jump onto the wing to safety.

That’s when she saw how serious the situation was.

“We got down to the ground and saw that the cockpit was gone and you don’t know what to think. It’s just surreal,” Mariotti said in a video interview from her home in Brooklyn, N.Y., Tuesday night.

“I … later realized it was the firetruck that was hit. And then we were all questioning, how could that happen?”

She survived the crash with a sore neck and an injury to her abdomen due to the seatbelt digging into her side, but saw firsthand how others suffered much worse. On the bus ride to the terminal after the evacuation, she saw people holding ice packs to their heads and people with bloody noses.

She later learned not everyone made it out alive. Pilots Antoine Forest, a native of Coteau-du-Lac, Que., southwest of Montreal, and Mackenzie Gunther, a 2023 alumnus of Toronto’s Seneca Polytechnic, were killed when the cockpit was torn apart after crashing into the firetruck, which was responding to another emergency at the time of the collision.

“I learned about these two guys, Antoine Forrest, Mackenzie Gunther. I think it’s important to say their names, and I really want to say thank you to their families for raising such brave young men,” Mariotti said.

“I know that they were both from Canada, from what I recall, and they’re both young and passionate about flying and, yeah, it makes you think about how people go into professions and take a lot of risks to keep other people safe.”

‘Thank you to Canadians’

She, like other passengers on the flight from Montreal, has praised the pilots, saying she recalled the plane hitting the brakes suddenly upon landing, which she says likely ended up saving more lives.

She wonders what would have happened if the pilots had decided to swerve out of the way at the last minute, and if the landing would have been more catastrophic.

“You know, two Canadian men helping a lot of us passengers to get back home. And we’re all able to go home because of them, I just want to say thank you to Canadians and that we’re your friend,” Mariotti said.

“I’m very grateful for those guys, and I have a lot of respect for Canadians in general, just very kind people. So thank you.”

• Hometown mourns Quebec pilot Antoine Forest, who died in LaGuardia crash

There has been an outpouring of support and condolences expressed on the Coteau-du-Lac Facebook page to honour Forest, one of the pilots who perished.

Louis-Cédrik Leduc, a communications officer for the town of 7,800 people, told The Canadian Press that even U.S. citizens have expressed their sadness and condolences to the city.

• Air Canada CEO summoned to Ottawa over English-only condolence message after plane crash

Cédric Forest, Antoine’s brother, paid tribute to him in a personal Facebook post on Monday night.

“Have a good flight, my brother!” he wrote. “Oh yes, we’ve heard that phrase often, but this time it will be the last. You were always coming and going, always full of new projects. You left us again, too soon to say goodbye.”

“I love you, my brother,” he added. “You can leave with your head held high.”

Seneca Polytechnic confirmed that Forest’s co-pilot, Gunther, joined Jazz Aviation soon after graduating from its aviation technology program in 2023.

Seneca Polytechnic lowered their flags to half-mast on Tuesday in his memory.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is going through the wreckage and large amounts of data as it continues its investigation into the crash of Air Canada Express flight 8646.

With files from The Canadian Press