The pilot and co-pilot have died after a passenger plane collided with a fire truck on one of the runways at New York's LaGuardia airport.
The Port Authority of New York, which is also responsible for the city's airports, announced this.
41 passengers and crew members have been taken to the hospital. The majority have been able to leave the hospital again, while nine need further treatment, the authority announced.
The accident occurred shortly after 11:30 p.m. Sunday evening local time, which is Monday night at 1:30 a.m. Greenland time.
The Reuters news agency writes that it is an Air Canada passenger plane that had landed in the American city of millions after flying from Montreal in Canada.
According to the passenger list, there were 76 people on board the plane. Of these, four were crew members. This was announced by the Canadian airline Jazz Aviation, which is a partner of Air Canada, according to the AFP news agency.
Collapsed at 40 km per hour
The plane hit the vehicle at a speed of almost 40 kilometers per hour. According to the monitoring site FlightRadar24, this happened when the plane rolled down the runway, which the vehicle was crossing.
According to preliminary information, it was a fire engine that collided with the plane.
It had received permission from the control tower to cross the runway, recordings of the communication in the tower confirm.
A few moments later, a counter-order from the control tower to the fire truck is issued, telling it to stop immediately.
The American media outlet CNN writes that videos circulating on social media show rescue vehicles around the plane, whose cockpit appears to be damaged.
The incident has prompted the American aviation authority to close LaGuardia on the grounds that it is an emergency situation.
The airport is expected to be closed until Monday at 2 p.m. local time - 4 p.m. Greenland time, the American aviation authority FAA announced according to Reuters.
The closure is partly in relation to the rescue work and partly in order to be able to investigate the incident in depth.
Arriving flights have either been diverted to other airports or have been flown back to where they took off from.
/ritzau/
