Solange Tremblay

A flight attendant hurled 320 feet during a catastrophic airport crash is now facing a long and painful recovery. Solange Tremblay, a senior crew member on an Air Canada Express flight, suffered devastating injuries after being thrown from the wreckage during a deadly collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

Her daughter has now revealed the shocking toll the accident has taken. Tremblay remains in hospital and faces multiple surgeries, a fractured spine, and months of rehabilitation just to learn how to walk again.

The horrific incident unfolded on Sunday, March 22. An Air Canada Express aircraft collided with a fire truck on the tarmac at LaGuardia Airport. The violent impact killed the plane’s two pilots instantly. Tremblay, still strapped into her seat, was launched from the aircraft and thrown an astonishing 320 feet.

Rescue crews later found her on the tarmac. She had suffered severe injuries, including two shattered legs and a fractured spine.

The shocking nature of the accident has stunned aviation observers. Despite the force of the crash, dozens of passengers survived.

At the time of the collision, the aircraft was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members. Aviation experts later said the outcome could have been far worse.

They noted that if the impact had involved the plane’s fuel stores, the consequences might have been even more catastrophic.

Tremblay’s daughter, Sarah Lépine, has been sharing updates about her mother’s condition. She launched a GoFundMe page to help cover the medical costs associated with the long recovery ahead. The fundraising effort has already received more than $160,000 in donations.

Lépine described the extent of the injuries in heartbreaking detail. Doctors are planning several surgeries to repair Tremblay’s legs using metal plates. Her spine injury is still under evaluation. Doctors are monitoring whether surgery will be required to stabilise the fracture.

The injuries to her legs are particularly severe. Lépine said her mother also requires skin grafts to repair tissue lost while sliding across the tarmac after the crash. “She requires skin graphs to repair the missing flesh she lost on her legs while sliding down the tarmac,” she wrote.

Complications from early surgery have already emerged. Tremblay recently needed a blood transfusion following her first operation.

She remains hospitalised in New York as doctors assess the next stages of treatment. According to her daughter, the ordeal has left her living with constant fear about what comes next.

“She remains in constant fear” of further complications, Lépine said. Once her surgeries are complete, Tremblay will face an even longer battle. She will need intensive rehabilitation to relearn how to walk.

The emotional impact has also been profound. Her daughter described Tremblay as someone who had devoted her entire life to her work in aviation. “My mother dedicated her entire life as a flight attendant, and was very proud of her work,” Lépine wrote. “She loved serving the public and helping them travel safely from their respective destinations.”

Images from the crash scene highlight the scale of the destruction. Photographs show the fire engine severely damaged and the aircraft’s nose ripped away. The collision has now triggered a major aviation investigation.

The US National Transportation Safety Board has launched a full probe into the crash. Investigators are working to determine exactly how the aircraft and emergency vehicle collided.

NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy confirmed key pieces of evidence have already been recovered. Both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder have been retrieved. The devices have been transported to Washington for detailed analysis. Investigators hope the recordings will reveal the sequence of events leading to the crash.

For Tremblay and her family, however, the focus is on survival and recovery. While the investigation continues, her daughter says the road ahead will be long and difficult — but the outpouring of support has already made a difference.

Major update on Air Canada flight attendant who was launched 320 feet during La Guardia crash

Bet there will be an enormous bill from the US healthcare "system".

Costs being covered by her union. But the family is having to set up a Gofundme to be by her side. That is unlikely to be reimbursed, including loss of wages. Right now Tremblay is in an acute care ward in New York, but at some point she will need medical air ambulance to Canada to go to a specialist spinal injuries hospital. These won't "fix" her spinal injury. There will be an assessment of spinal cord damage (ASIA scale), which can change during treatment. She may need fitment of, to start with, a temporary stoma. This will be done in Canada. After a few months for the fractures etc to to settle, then she will receive rehabilitation. She might well find an age/gender bias, as patients in these units tend to be younger men, in better physical fitness, and who consequently respond better to physiotherapy. Older people and women don't receive the same level of attention. That's how it is.

In someways, its better for the extent of injury to the spinal cord, if any, to be under diagnosed, that over diagnosed, because that affects access to rehabilitation services.

If you are diagnosed Asia-A to start with, then that means the spinal cord is severed. There is little to no prospect of fixing that, so there is not a lot of point in rehab, so the focus is getting the patient used to a life in a wheelchair, a likely shortened lifespan, and a life of continuous pain and medical complications, such as pressure sores. If its an incomplete injury, then there is something still there, and physiotherapy might restore, in part, function. Different healthcare systems will take different approaches, and it can be brutal. If you crash your motorbike in the UK, you are more likely to be told you will never walk again than if you crashed your motorbike in, say, Poland. Of course this is a nonsense, because its the same crash wherever you are. But what it means is you are less likely to get a referral to a physio, because an early diagnosis will indicate there is no point. The maddening thing though is the diagnosis can change over time; the patient apparently regains movement in a toe or something. But by then, the window for successful rehab has closed. In reality, the patient always could have moved that toe, but lacked the strength in a traumatised body. I speak from personal experience.

16 hours ago, unblocktheplanet said:

Bet there will be an enormous bill from the US healthcare "system".

A bill that should be entirely recovered from which ever agency was responsible. She contributed in no way to her injuries.

Even if her union is paying her hospital bills and eventual air ambulance back to Canada, surely Air Canada has responsibility for huge compensation which would be in no way commensurate with her injuries.

We're not a sue me-sue you culture as in the US but we do believe in taking care of people.

Air Canada needs to do the right thing starting right now and not have her family rely on public donations to be by her side.