US EditionAviation experts to probe Air Canada flight after fatal crash at LaGuardia Airport
Investigators focus on air traffic controller handling multiple emergencies amid staffing and technology issues after collision killed two pilots and injured about 40 passengers.
- On Sunday night, Air Canada Express Flight AC8646 collided with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York, killing two pilots and injuring dozens of the 72 passengers and four crew members aboard.
- Audio recordings reveal a controller initially cleared the fire truck to cross the runway while responding to a separate odor incident on a United Airlines flight. Seconds later, the controller repeatedly shouted for "Truck 1" to stop before the collision occurred.
- Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are probing the crash, noting the controller was managing another emergency during the incident. Forty-one people were taken to hospitals in Queens, with nine remaining in care as of Monday morning.
- Air Canada confirmed the deaths of captain Antoine Forest and first officer Mackenzie Gunther, calling the loss "deeply saddening." The airline is working closely with U.S. authorities as the investigation continues.
- Aviation expert Julian Kheel warned that nationwide air traffic controller shortages leave a smaller margin of error for controllers managing increasingly congested skies. The incident has reignited concerns over limited staffing at major U.S. airports.
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The Billings Gazette
Bismarck TribuneCrash underscores pressures on air traffic controllers
Just before an Air Canada jet collided with an airport fire truck, air traffic controllers at New York's LaGuardia Airport were juggling a developing latenight emergency on the runway.
The aircraft that struck a fire truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport bears the Air Canada logo, the name of Air Canada before the word "Jazz", but it is not an Air Canada aircraft.
NTSB suggests ‘many, many things went wrong' in deadly LaGuardia runway crash
One of only two air traffic controllers on duty at LaGuardia Airport cleared a fire truck to cross a runway just 12 seconds before an Air Canada flight touched down, leaving little time to avoid the collision that killed both pilots, federal investigators said Tuesday. The National Transportation Safety Board is working to determine which of the airport’s many layers of safety precautions failed and allowed the fire truck onto the runway Sunday …
Multiple failures likely led to deadly LaGuardia collision
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was likely a series of failures that led to the accident at LaGuardia Airport when an Air Canada jet struck a fire truck on the runway. Geoff Bennett discussed the latest with science and aviation correspondent Miles O’Brien.
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