BURST
The daughter of Solange Tremblay, the Air Canada flight attendant who miraculously survived last Sunday’s fatal crash at LaGuardia Airport, says her mother was “conscious” as she was ejected more than 320 feet from the aircraft and slid across the tarmac, where she was later found still strapped into her jump seat and suffering from multiple injuries.
“My mom has suffered so much from this event and regrettably her struggles are far from over,” Sarah Lépine wrote in a GoFundMe established in aid of her mother on Friday.
The GoFundMe also includes a photo of Tremblay in her hospital bed accompanied by a woman identified by TVA Nouvelles as her sister.
Tremblay was the senior flight attendant aboard the Air Canada Jazz flight 8646 from Montreal that collided with a Port Authority fire truck permitted to cross the same runway where the CRJ900 jet was just told to land.
The nose of the aircraft slammed into the emergency vehicle at a high rate of speed, crumpling its nose into an unrecognizable mess of metal and wires and send the fire truck skidding on its side across the ground. Lépine said her mother was seated “directly behind the cockpit” in the forward cabin.
Both pilots, Capt. Antoine Forest, 30, and first officer Mackenzie Gunther, 24, were killed and more than half of the 72 passengers were injured. Two firefighters also sustained injuries.
The crash remains under investigation by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
As of early Sunday afternoon, less than 48 hours later, the fundraiser for Tremblay was about $26,000 shy of its $160,000 goal. Lépine said the funds will help her and her mother’s husband, Denis Nicol Jr., take time away from work to be with and care for Tremblay at a New York hospital, where she will be recovering “for the foreseeable future.”
“My mother’s injuries include two shattered legs (open fractures) requiring multiple surgeries where metal plates are needed to repair the damage done to her legs,” Lépine.
“She sustained a fractured spine where she continues to wait and see if surgery is required.”
“Furthermore, she requires skin graphs (sic) to repair the missing flesh she lost on her legs while sliding down the tarmac. She has even received a blood transfusion due to complications from her first surgery.”
Lépine said her mother will require more surgeries and rehab to learn to walk again. She’s also at risk of infection.
Tremblay, according to her daughter, has spent her life as a flight attendant, work she was “proud” of as she served the public and helped them reach their destinations.
“Right now, my mom needs your help,” wrote Lépine.
“If you can donate it would mean more than I could put into words.”
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