Mangled plane in LaGuardia crash towed from runway

All but four of the passengers injured in Sunday’s deadly collision between an Air Canada plane and a fire truck have been released from the hospital, the airline said Wednesday, as crews began moving the mangled aircraft off the runaway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

The crash, which remains under investigation, killed two pilots. Roughly 40 people were treated at area hospitals for a range of injuries, some serious. Further details on the four people who remained hospitalised were not immediately available. The plane, which originated in Montreal, was carrying 76 people, including the crew, when it slammed into the fire truck that had driven out onto the runway. Seconds before the collision, an air traffic controller had cleared the truck to cross the runway.

Since Monday, much of the wreckage had remained on the tarmac, blocking access to one of two runways at one of the country’s busiest airports.

Just before 5 pm on Wednesday, airport workers began towing the remnants away. Two big tow trucks working in tandem also righted the badly damaged fire truck, which had been laying on its side since the crash. The jet’s tail end was lifted onto a large dolly, which was then towed via long tethers by two vehicles driving side by side.