El avión de Air Canadá que transportaba 76 pasajeros a bordo impactó de lleno contra un camión de bomberos que estaba asistiendo a otro incidente en el aeropuerto LaGuardia, en Nueva York, Estados Unidos, dejando al menos a dos muertos, el piloto y al copiloto, y más de 40 heridos. En las imágenes que se viralizaron, se ve el momento del choque y cómo la aeronave arrastra a la autobomba por la pista de aterrizaje.

El episodio se registró en la pista 4 cuando la aeronave CRJ-900 de Air Canada, procedente de Montreal, aterrizaba en Queens.

El impacto con el vehículo generó grandes daños en el sector delantero de la aeronave, según se ve en las imágenes que circularon después.

La Autoridad Portuaria de Nueva York y Nueva Jersey precisó que «aproximadamente a las 11:40 de la tarde del domingo, un vuelo de Jazz Aviation que operaba en nombre de Air Canada estuvo involucrado en un incidente en la Pista 4 del Aeropuerto LaGuardia en el que golpeó un vehículo de Rescate de Aeronaves y Extinción de Incendios de la Autoridad Portuaria que estaba respondiendo a un incidente distinto”.

En tanto, varios videos grabados por testigos del momento -que enseguida se viralizaron en las redes sociales- mostraron los impresionantes daños que el avión sufrió debido a la colisión.

Aunque la torre de control intentó detener al camión de bomberos ya no podían hacer nada para evitar el choque con el avión de Air Canada.

Tras el accidente, la Administración Federal de Aviación (FAA) confirmó la suspensión de todos los vuelos en LaGuardia debido a la emergencia. Recién por la tarde, la terminal volvió a estar operativa, aunque con demoras y cancelaciones.

Según una grabación de los controladores aéreos difundida en el sitio LiveATC.com, primero se autorizó al camión a cruzar la pista, pero no se detuvo a tiempo mientras un controlador le repetía «alto» varias veces.

El piloto y el copiloto fallecieron en el accidente, informó Kathryn Garcia, directora de la autoridad portuaria de la ciudad, en una conferencia de prensa.

El presidente Donald Trump calificó el accidente como «terrible». «Cometieron un error. Es un trabajo peligroso», dijo a periodistas.

LaGuardia fue el 19no aeropuerto más concurrido en 2024 de entre más de 500 aeropuertos de Estados Unidos, con más de 16,7 millones de pasajeros embarcando allí, según una base de datos de la FAA de 2025.

Arturo Davidson dijo que su vuelo con destino a Miami estaba en la pista el domingo por la noche cuando otros pasajeros vieron la colisión o sus consecuencias, y las reacciones se propagaron por la cabina.

Pronto se les dijo a los pasajeros que había habido un accidente. Unos 20 minutos después se les informó de que el aeropuerto estaba cerrando y que debían regresar a la terminal, dijo más tarde el lunes, mirando un tablero de salidas lleno de cancelaciones.

La violencia del impacto fue devastadora. El avión golpeó el centro del camión, lo que lanzó a los oficiales que iban en la cabina delantera del vehículo, pero les permitió sobrevivir. La nariz de la aeronave quedó al ras del suelo, de modo que los pilotos absorbieron toda la fuerza del choque. Según los medios locales, el capitán y el primer oficial murieron en el acto.

La auxiliar, en cambio, corrió una suerte distinta y todavía inexplicada del todo. La brutal desintegración de la parte delantera del avión la expulsó de la cabina, pero el cinturón de su asiento de salto —diseñado para mantener a la tripulación segura durante maniobras de emergencia— no cedió. Aunque la auxiliar de vuelo sufrió heridas de gravedad, fuentes cercanas a la investigación señalaron que se espera que sobreviva al accidente.

Dos fuentes informadas sobre el caso confirmaron a NBC News que la tripulante fue encontrada por agentes de la Policía de la Autoridad Portuaria fuera del avión, y los socorristas la trasladaron de urgencia a un hospital de la zona. Su identidad no ha sido divulgada.

Mientras los equipos de rescate atendían a los 41 heridos del siniestro, una revisión preliminar del personal de emergencia indicó que los motores estaban apagados a su llegada, lo que permitió abrir la salida trasera del avión y evacuar a los pasajeros. Unas 72 personas viajaban a bordo.

Justice Samuel Alito emphasized the literal meaning of the word «day» as the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday about whether states can legally accept late-arriving ballots that are postmarked by Election Day.

«We have lots of phrases that involve two words, the last of which, the second of which is ‘day,’ Labor Day, Memorial Day, George Washington’s birthday, Independence Day, birthday and Election Day, and they’re all particular days,» Alito, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, said.

Alito added, «If we start with that, if I have nothing more to look at than the phrase ‘Election Day,’ I think this is the day in which everything is going to take place, or almost everything.»

The justice’s remarks came after the Republican National Committee sued over a Mississippi law that allows mail ballots postmarked by Election Day to be counted if they are received five days after that day. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit sided with the RNC in the case in 2024, leading Mississippi to ask the Supreme Court to weigh in.

ELECTION INTEGRITY GROUPS PRESS SUPREME COURT TO REQUIRE BALLOTS BY ELECTION DAY

Alito was among multiple conservative justices on Monday who appeared skeptical of Mississippi’s law and intent on striking it down. A decision is expected by the summer and would likely affect more than a dozen states that accept postmarked ballots after Election Day.

While some of the justices seemed persuaded that Election Day should be viewed as a single and final day in an election cycle, Chief Justice John Roberts, a George W. Bush appointee, and Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, raised concerns that if the interpretation of Election Day was strictly upheld by the court, then early voting might also be affected.

«If ‘day’ includes a period after a particular day of the election, does it include a particular day before the day of the election?» Roberts asked Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart. «Or does your logic require a different consideration?»

Former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, a prominent conservative lawyer, argued in support of the RNC, saying the original meaning of an election involved the «combined action» of offering up a vote and an election official receiving the vote.

RNC GETS DAY AT SUPREME COURT TO CHALLENGE LATE-ARRIVING MAIL BALLOTS

The facade of the U.S. Supreme Court building is seen in October 2024. (Valerie Plesch/picture alliance via Getty Images)

«All agree that elections for federal office have to end on the day of the election specified by Congress, and all agree that you can’t have an election unless you receive ballots, and there must be some deadline for ballot receipt,» Clement said. «Nonetheless, Mississippi insists that ballots can trickle in days or even weeks after Election Day. That position is wrong as a matter of text, precedent, history and common sense.»

The case comes as President Donald Trump has made election security a top focus. The RNC and several election integrity groups that weighed in on the case argued that the Supreme Court should ban late-arriving ballots, except for military ballots, because they sow distrust in elections.

«Today’s oral arguments in Watson v. RNC clearly show where the Supreme Court should come down: state laws that count ballots received after Election Day violate federal law, expose elections to delays, invite fraud, and fuel public doubt in the democratic process,» Jason Snead, executive director of the Honest Elections Project, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.

Allegheny County workers scan mail-in and absentee ballots at the Allegheny County Election Division Elections warehouse in Pittsburgh, Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

At least 14 states and Washington, D.C., currently count ballots received after Election Day if postmarked on time.

A ruling upholding the 5th Circuit could invalidate those policies and require ballots to be in election officials’ hands by the close of polls, a decision that is expected to affect the 2026 midterms. Critics say election officials could still be counting mail ballots in some states even if the ballots are all received by Election Day because of states’ individual tabulating processes.

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Military and overseas ballots, which are governed by the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, would likely remain unaffected.

Since the 2024 midterm elections, four Republican-controlled states, Kansas, Ohio, Utah and North Dakota, have moved to require receipt by Election Day.

Fox News’ Bill Mears contributed to this report.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is ratcheting up pressure on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats in the upper chamber as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutdown creeps into a sixth week with no end in sight.

House GOP leaders are poised to hold votes Thursday on a pair of bills aimed at putting Democrats on the spot for the shutdown, Fox News Digital has learned.

Johnson is having the House vote for a third time on funding DHS through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The bill is based on a bipartisan deal struck earlier this year, but Democrats walked away from it en masse in protest of President Donald Trump’s strategy to crack down on illegal immigration.

The second measure is a nonbinding resolution led by Rep. Ryan Mackenzie, R-Pa., expressing support for all agencies under DHS’s purview.

DHS SHUTDOWN TIED FOR SECOND-LONGEST EVER AS DEMS AGAIN BLOCK FUNDING AMID AIRPORT CHAOS, TERRORISM CONCERNS

It comes as the DHS shutdown, now in its 38th day, is wreaking havoc for airline travelers across the country. Major airports in Houston, New Orleans, New York City, and other areas are seeing hours-long delays caused by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staffing shortages, with scores of TSA agents calling out of work amid missed paychecks due to the shutdown.

TSA agents are poised to miss their paychecks this Friday, the second full pay period missed of the ongoing shutdown. 

The TSA is one of several agencies that operate under DHS, along with Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), among others.

EXCLUSIVE: HOUSE REPUBLICANS TO HOLD HEARING ON DHS SHUTDOWN RISKS AMID TRAVEL SURGE

«Anyone waiting for hours just to miss their flights will not soon forget, and Republicans are going to continue reminding Americans that it’s the Democrats putting their safety at risk just to protect criminal illegal aliens,» a House GOP leadership aide told Fox News Digital on Monday.

«The problem for Democrats in their latest shutdown is they are hurting American citizens in an effort to protect criminal illegals and reopen our border, as evidenced by their own words and bills they are pushing to defund Customs and Border Patrol.»

Travelers wait in long security lines at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in March 2026. (Lekan Oyekanmi/AP Photo)

Negotiations on funding DHS have ground to a halt with Republicans rejecting key demands from Democrats for ICE and CBP reforms — specifically requiring judicial warrants for immigration operations and banning agents from wearing face masks — as non-starters.

Trump also recently threw a wrench in the talks by demanding Republicans not accept any offer from Democrats until left-wing lawmakers agree to advance an unrelated election integrity measure called the SAVE America Act.

In the Senate, at least a handful of Democrats are needed to overcome a filibuster and advance any DHS funding legislation. 

The House, which operates on a simple majority, passed congressional negotiators’ initial DHS funding bill twice — and will likely do so a third time on Thursday.

The third iteration of the bill is being led by Rep. Juan Ciscomani, R-Ariz.

«This standoff has gone on long enough,» Ciscomani told Fox News Digital on Monday. «The men and women who keep our country safe here at home are a critical part of our national security—they need to get paid, now. These professionals should never be caught in the middle of political games, yet that’s exactly what has happened. It’s shameful.»

United States Capitol building is seen in Washington, D.C., United States on Dec. 2, 2024.  (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The nonbinding resolution honoring DHS is also likely to pass, but it’s unclear how much Democratic support it would get. 

«Instead of joining the bipartisan majority in supporting full funding for DHS, including commonsense reforms like body cameras and de-escalation training, Democratic leadership is afraid of the radical ‘Defund ICE’ movement and unwilling to compromise in order to protect the American people,» Mackenzie told Fox News Digital. «This situation is unacceptable, and it must end immediately.»

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Democrats have tried to push legislation to fund DHS except for agencies related to Trump’s immigration crackdown, efforts that have been shunned by the GOP.

Both Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., have argued that ICE’s controversial operations in Minneapolis and other blue cities are reason enough to block any proposal that funds further immigration operations.