New York — A terrifying runway collision at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night could have ended in far greater tragedy, but “pure luck” and a precise angle of impact prevented a massive fireball and dozens of additional deaths, an aviation-safety expert said Monday.

The Air Canada passenger jet slammed into a Port Authority fire truck that had been cleared to cross the runway, an incident captured on dramatic video that shows the plane smashing into the vehicle and dragging it down the strip. The crash occurred around 11:45 p.m. Sunday, leaving two pilots dead, scores of passengers and crew members injured — along with two police officers — and sparking an immediate emergency response.

Former FAA safety inspector David Soucie, speaking to CNN, described the outcome as a miraculous near-miss. The jet struck the fire truck directly in the middle, pushing the heavy vehicle forward while only damaging the aircraft’s nose section.

“Because that aircraft hit directly in the middle of the fire truck, the fire truck was moved forward, and the aircraft was damaged in the nose,” Soucie explained.

He added that the geometry of the impact was decisive. “If the truck was 40 feet back or forward, it would have struck against the wing, the fuel cells, the engines and would have created a huge fire and … many, many fatalities,” Soucie said. “So as tragic as this is for the two that we’ve lost, just out of pure luck, that airplane hit in the middle of that fire truck and reduced the number of fatalities significantly.”

The sequence of events began when an air-traffic controller initially granted the fire truck permission to cross the active runway. Moments later, realizing an incoming Air Canada flight was on final approach for landing, the controller frantically tried to wave off the emergency vehicle — but it was too late. The plane, traveling at landing speed, struck the truck head-on.

By Monday afternoon, officials reported that more than 40 passengers and crew had been transported to area hospitals. Most of those injured have since been released, a sign that the worst of the physical harm was contained to the initial impact zone.

The two pilots killed were described by FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford as “young men at the start of their careers.” One of the deceased has been identified as Antoine Forest, according to the Toronto Star, which cited his family.

While the human toll is heartbreaking — two promising aviators gone and dozens more shaken by the ordeal — safety analysts say the limited fatalities underscore both the fragility of airport operations and the razor-thin margins that can separate disaster from survival. The fact that the fire truck’s fuel supplies and the plane’s own fuel tanks were never breached prevented what Soucie called a potential “huge fire,” turning what could have been one of the deadliest runway incursions in recent U.S. history into a contained, albeit still devastating, accident.

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are now examining air-traffic communications, runway protocols, and the exact positioning of the fire truck. For now, however, the story emerging from LaGuardia is one of narrow escape: two lives lost, but countless others spared by a single, fortunate angle of impact.