The fatal plane crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night was entirely avoidable and likely caused by a miscommunication — but either way, the Air Canada jet had the right of way, experts said on Monday.
“Once that aircraft was cleared to land … it owned that runway,” said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, to The Post.
There appeared to be clear confusion between the control tower and ground control when the plane smashed into the truck, killing two pilots and injuring dozens, she noted.
Based on audio recordings, only one person may have been directing both the local and ground control function, Ms Schiavo said.
“There are two parts here — there’s the control in the tower, also called local control, and there’s ground control. And those two air traffic control entities are supposed to co-ordinate with each other,” Ms Schiavo explained.
“So clearly they either did not co-ordinate, or they did and were just wrong. But giving a firetruck clearance to cross the runway after an aircraft has been cleared to run in this final is a clear error. There’s just no way around that,” she said.
“Who gave the final clearance for that fire truck across the runway? It should have been the tower, but clearly … someone made a very critical mistake in allowing a fire truck clearance to cross the runway when an aircraft had been given a landing clearance. That’s my take on it.”
Harvey Sconick, a retired air traffic controller who spent more than 38 years with the Federal Aviation Administration, told The Post that he thinks the air traffic controller “went brain dead”.
“The controller who crossed those vehicles while the aeroplane was landing just went brain dead for a minute,” he said.
“There’s no explanation I can give you that would make any sense why the controller would cross those vehicles, knowing that there’s a runway, that there’s an aeroplane flaring out to land.
“It’s possible that one person was directing both air and ground traffic late at night when the airport got less busy, or perhaps the controllers were working on different frequencies and unable to communicate.
“Unless the fire truck driver fell asleep, he would have heard that there was an aeroplane landing on that runway. And when the controller cleared him to cross the runway. He would have said, ‘Hey, are you sure you want us to cross? You’ve got a guy landing.’”
Chilling air traffic control tower audio recorded the chaotic scene — with one controller admitting he “messed up”.
The regional jet from Montreal, operated by Jazz Aviation, collided with the firetruck just before midnight Sunday on Runway 4 at the Queens transit hub.
The truck was responding to a separate incident on another plane.
Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told reporters that air traffic control was responsible for vehicles on the runways.
“The procedure is always in deference to the control tower, any time anyone is moving on any of our runways or taxiways,” she said on Monday.
“They have to get clearance from the tower to move on our runways or our taxiways.”
A pilot and co-pilot were killed in the mangled front of the jet, with 41 people — including two cops on the rescue vehicle — hospitalised.
The crash remains under investigation, but Ms Schiavo compared it to the American Airlines collision in January last year with a military helicopter over the Potomac River, which left 67 people dead.
That incident, she said, was the result of a “dereliction of duty” by the FAA.
“I’m afraid we might see some of that same thing here,” said Ms Schiavo, who was the DOT inspector general from 1990 to 1996.
“I think they already see this is another case of the FAA simply not doing their job, not co-ordinating that staffing.
“And it’s tragic, and it’s sad. But … I have to say I’m not surprised. I’m saddened, but I’m not surprised that we have another co-ordination problem with air traffic control.”
The plane, which had 72 passengers and four crew members on board, was travelling about 24 mph (39km/h) when it collided with the truck, according to data.
A female flight attendant miraculously survived after she was ejected through the front of the aircraft while still in her seat during the crash.
Port Authority cops helped rescue her, and she was brought to the hospital, sources told The Post.
Haunting pictures taken on Monday morning show the mangled plane’s cockpit completely destroyed on the runway.
This article originally appeared on NY Post and was reproduced with permission
