Just after her Air Canada flight landed at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday and just before it collided with a Port Authority fire truck, a piercing sound startled Rebecca Liquori.
“The pilot was trying to brake to slow the plane down to avoid the crash, and that made, like, just a huge noise,” said Ms. Liquori, who was sitting in seat 19A. “I’ve never heard it before. It was like a grinding.”
Ms. Liquori, 35, a nurse who lives in Baldwin, N.Y., was sitting on the left side of the plane by the emergency exit.
“A few seconds after that, you hear the collision and we just got jolted,” Ms. Liquori said. “We got thrown forward. And everybody’s screaming.”
The crash killed both pilots, injured dozens of people — including a flight attendant who was ejected from the plane — and shut down one of the busiest domestic airports in the region until 2 p.m. Monday.
Ms. Liquori said the journey from Montreal had been smooth until a turbulent descent. A flight attendant announced that passengers shouldn’t take any luggage with them if the flight made an emergency landing, a warning that alarmed Ms. Liquori. The language that the attendant used has become more common among flight crews while they are preparing for landing, according to the Association of Flight Attendants. Then came a shudder as the plane touched down.
While Ms. Liquori said she couldn’t see what was happening in the front of the plane, she noticed that other passengers around her were bleeding and bruised. Ms. Liquori said she did not hear flight attendants instruct passengers to open the emergency doors, but she opened a door, fearful that the plane would combust.
“Unfortunately the flight attendant that was in the front, she got ejected from the plane so we really did not have direction,” Ms. Liquori said. “I did what I was instructed at the beginning of the flight.”
The flight attendant, Solange Tremblay, was ejected while still strapped into her seat, her daughter, Sarah Lépine, said in an interview with TVA Nouvelles, a Quebec broadcaster. Ms. Lépine said that one of her mother’s legs was broken and would require surgery, but that no other serious injuries occurred.
After impact, emergency slides on the plane didn’t deploy. Instead, passengers clambered onto the wings of the plane and then jumped down onto the tarmac, Ms. Liquori said.
Once out of the plane, she said, she realized the extent of what had just occurred. She said the pilots were heroes.
“They did everything they can to save us and they didn’t save themselves and they couldn’t save themselves,” Ms. Liquori said. “Every time I close my eyes, my heart is racing, I just hear screaming.”
Another passenger, Jack Cabot, 22, said after the plane landed hard, it veered back and forth. “No one was driving at that point,” he said.
Mr. Cabot said that, despite the chaos onboard, passengers reacted quickly. They opened the emergency door and evacuated, he said, some with their luggage.
“No one really knew what was happening, just that it was time to get off the plane,” he said. “I’m a little banged up, but I’m happy I’m OK.”
Vjosa Isai contributed reporting.
Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel.
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