A NOTE OF THANKS

I wasn't prepared for what happened.

When I wrote my tribute to Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther, I simply felt compelled to say something. To say their names. To make sure they were not reduced to a headline.

Antoine Forest was 30 years old. He was from Coteau-du-Lac, a small town in southwestern Quebec. He loved hiking, kayaking, sailing, climbing. He had been flying for Jazz Aviation since 2022. His brother Cédric wrote on Facebook after he died: "Have a safe flight, my brother. Oh yes, we've heard that phrase so many times — but this time it will be the last."

Mackenzie Gunther had just graduated from Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto in 2023. He joined Jazz Aviation's pathways program straight out of college. He was at the very beginning of his career. His college lowered its flags to half-mast in his honour.

On the night of March 22, 2026, their Air Canada Express flight from Montreal touched down on a rain-soaked runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York just before midnight. A Port Authority fire truck crossed their path. The cockpit took the full impact. Both men died at their posts.

Passengers who survived said it was the pilots' incredible reflexes — braking hard at the last possible second — that saved 72 lives that night.

They gave everything.

The response to my tribute overwhelmed me. The restacks, the shares, the messages from across Canada and beyond told me something important — that people needed a moment to stop. To grieve properly. To say the names out loud and mean it.

Thank you for saying their names with me. Thank you for sharing their story so widely and so generously. Because of you, Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther were not just a statistic. They were honoured as the heroes they were.

That means everything.

— George Froehlich