An airliner has skidded off a runway at New York’s La Guardia airport and slid to a halt just metres from frigid waters, as a snow storm battered the US coast from Texas to Boston.
Heavy snow was falling on Thursday as Delta flight 1086 from Atlanta careered off the runway, then plowed up an embankment and demolished a fence after its late morning landing.
New York firefighters said 24 people suffered non-life-threatening injuries, including three who were transported from the scene. The McDonnell Douglas MD-88 was carrying 127 passengers and five crew.
Video footage showed shaken passengers climbing gingerly out of the plane through an exit over a wing and trudging through thick snow. The plane’s nose jutted through the fence, suspended above the icy East River.
Passengers recounted panic as the plane failed to break after landing.