The two pilots killed in the horrific LaGuardia plane crash have been praised for saving all of their passengers’ lives.
Shaken survivor Rebecca Liquori told CNN on Monday that she is “forever indebted” to pilot Antoine Forest and first officer Mackenzie Gunther, who died last Sunday when their Air Canada Express Flight 8646 T-boned a fire truck heading to a separate emergency.
Liquori said the pair slammed on the brakes as soon as their jet touched down, likely saving the 72 onboard as the aircraft slammed into the truck, killing the pilots and sending a crew member sailing out in a safety chair.
“I feel like the pilots saved our lives,” Liquori told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday.
“They’re the reasons I was able to make it home safe to see my boys, and my heart goes out to their families.”
Another passenger, Jack Cabot, said he owes his life to Forest and Gunther.
“Right as we hit the ground, we kind of felt, like, the brake was pretty hard and we all felt something was wrong,” Cabot told the CBC News Network.
“And then, it was just this sudden, overwhelming, like, panic, because we’d hit something and there was nobody in control.”
The pilots appear to have used the plane’s reverse thrust, according to the CBC. Reverse thrust temporarily redirects engine exhaust forward rather than backward, helping the plane to rapidly decelerate after landing.
The flight data recorder, which has been recovered by investigators, will show whether the pilots activated maximum reverse thrust, possibly after spotting the truck, the outlet reported.
Clément Lelièvre, a French national who was on board, told the Canadian Press he felt the pilots hit the brakes “extremely hard.”
“I don’t know the circumstances, but I think he kind of saved our lives because he must have had incredible reflexes,” Lelièvre said.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members onboard the plane, which was operated by Jazz Aviation and had departed from Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
Of them, 41 were hospitalized after the collision around 11:45 p.m., including two Port Authority first responders who were in the fire truck.
Footage shows the jet barreling into the truck, leaving it completely mangled and toppled on its side, and obliterating the front of the aircraft.
An audio recording caught an air traffic controller frantically yelling “Stop, stop, stop, stop!” before the deadly impact.
Runway 4, where the collision unfolded, is expected to remain closed for days as officials work to clear the “tremendous” amount of debris, officials said on Monday.
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