Photo Gallery: Bodies of Air Canada pilots repatriated

By Canadian Press on March 27, 2026.

The bodies of the two Air Canada pilots who died in a collision on a runway at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday have returned to Canada.

Pilots carried the casket of Jazz Aviation first officer Mackenzie Gunther off a plane at the Ottawa International Airport on Thursday afternoon. Capt. Antoine Forest’s body was then flown from Ottawa to Montréal Trudeau International Airport.

Hundreds of pilots and flight staff waited in the rain, lined up in front of Air Canada’s Montreal headquarters to honour Forest. The procession rolled through after sundown.

Gunther, 24, and Forest, 30, died when their Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck after landing at the New York City airport. The fire truck, responding to a separate incident aboard another plane, was cleared to cross the runway, seconds before the Air Canada plane landed.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2026.

The Canadian Press