Montreal airport unveils memorial for Air Canada pilots killed in LaGuardia crash

Montreal’s airport authority has unveiled a memorial honouring two Air Canada pilots who were killed in a runway collision at LaGuardia Airport last month.

Located at the Jacques-de-Lesseps plane-spotting park, the tribute notes that Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther died while carrying out their duties and doing what they loved.

Forest, 30, and Gunther, 24, and were killed on March 22 when their Air Canada aircraft struck a fire truck that was crossing the runway shortly after landing at the New York City airport. Their bodies were repatriated to Canada on March 26.

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board released this week found that a monitoring system failed to alert air traffic controllers because the ground vehicle lacked a transponder.

READ MORE: Air Canada LaGuardia crash update: safety board points to missed "stop" call

Investigators also reported that the truck driver heard the word “stop” over the radio but was unsure who the instruction was directed at.

As reported by CBC News, and according to Aéroports de Montréal spokesperson Émilie Chevrette, the park where the memorial now stands had already become a gathering place for aviation enthusiasts, who left flowers and tributes there in the days following the crash.

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