Flight attendant survives after being thrown out of Air Canada jet

Mohan Sinha
27 Mar 2026, 15:46 GMT+10

A flight attendant who remained strapped in her seat when she was thrown out of the Air Canada jet that collided with a truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on March 22, miraculously survived with a fractured leg and other injuries
Sarah Lepine said her mother, Solange Tremblay, broke one leg in several places and will need surgery, but she is otherwise fine
An aviation expert said she may have survived because she was sitting in a crew seat with a four-point safety belt

NEW YORK CITY, New York: A flight attendant who remained strapped in her seat when she was thrown out of the Air Canada jet that collided with a truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport on March 22, miraculously survived with a fractured leg and other injuries.

It's a "total miracle," her daughter Sarah Lepine told Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles.

Lepine said her mother, Solange Tremblay, broke one leg in several places and will need surgery, but she is otherwise fine. An aviation expert said she may have survived because she was sitting in a crew seat with a four-point safety belt.

Lepine said she is still trying to understand how it happened, but feels her mother was very lucky.

The plane, carrying more than 70 passengers, was landing when it struck a fire truck en route to help another aircraft. The front of the Air Canada plane was badly damaged, and both the pilot and co-pilot died.

Aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti also called Tremblay's survival a miracle, considering how badly the front of the plane was destroyed.

He explained that flight attendants sit in fold-down "jump seats" attached firmly to the wall near the cockpit. These seats are very strong and built to withstand heavier impacts than regular passenger seats, because flight attendants need to help people escape after a crash.

In 2013, at least two flight attendants were injured when they were thrown from an Asiana Airlines flight that crashed into a seawall while landing at San Francisco International Airport. There were 291 people on board that flight, and three girls died.