Passengers Braced for Impact Before Fatal LaGuardia Crash

Passengers on an Air Canada flight into New York say the warning signs came before the impact. The Montreal-to-LaGuardia trip was routine until a choppy descent, followed by what one passenger described as a "grinding" sound as the pilot braked hard moments before the jet hit a Port Authority fire truck late Sunday. The collision killed both pilots, injured dozens, and shut one of the region's busiest airports until Monday afternoon. Passengers spoke to the New York Times about the crash:

• Rebecca Liquori, 35, of Baldwin, NY: "The pilot was trying to brake to slow the plane down to avoid the crash, and that made, like, just a huge noise," said Liquori, a nurse who was seated by an emergency exit. "I've never heard it before. It was like a grinding. A few seconds after that, you hear the collision and we just got jolted. We got thrown forward. And everybody's screaming."

• Jack Cabot, 22: After the plane landed hard, he says it swerved. "No one was driving at that point," he said.
• The emergency exit: "Unfortunately the flight attendant that was in the front, she got ejected from the plane so we really did not have direction," said Liquori, who opened the door even though no instructions to do so came. "I did what I was instructed at the beginning of the flight."
• Getting off the plane: There were no emergency slides on the CRJ-900, as the jet's exits are low enough for direct egress. "No one really knew what was happening, just that it was time to get off the plane," said Cabot.
• The hero pilots: Once on the ground, Liquori says she realized the scope of what had happened. "They did everything they can to save us and they didn't save themselves and they couldn't save themselves," Liquori said of the pilots. "Every time I close my eyes, my heart is racing, I just hear screaming."
• Witness: "We were literally like 100 meters away," 23-year-old Leo Medina, who was on another plane on the tarmac, tells the BBC. "It was like the plane got cut in half."
• Video: In a separate piece, the Times goes over the timeline of the crash and has video of it here.