Officials have hit back at speculation that distracted air traffic controllers may have contributed to a deadly collision between a jet and a fire truck at a New York airport, while revealing a runway alert system did not trigger before the crash.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday, US time, provided an update on the preliminary investigation into the deadly crash between an Air Canada Express jet and a Port Authority fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia airport just before midnight on Sunday, which left two pilots dead and dozens injured.
Media reports said investigators were probing whether airport traffic controllers were distracted by a separate odour issue on a United Airlines flight – the emergency to which the fire truck was responding.
“I would caution pointing fingers at controllers and saying distraction was involved,” Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters.
“We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure,” she added.
Ms Homendy reassured “our aviation system is incredibly safe because there are multiple, multiple layers of defence built in to prevent an accident”.
“So when something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong.”
Two air traffic controllers were working in LaGuardia’s tower at the time of the collision, Ms Homendy said.
In addition to their main responsibilities, the pair were handling departure clearances and ground traffic control, though it was unclear how those duties were distributed.
Ms Homendy said the staffing level was “common practice across the national airspace” for a midnight shift, however, she noted her agency has previously raised concerns about fatigue.
“We have no indication that was a factor here, but it is a shift that we have been focused on in past investigations,” she said.
No alert
Ms Homendy revealed the runway safety system, ASDE-X, designed to track aircraft and ground vehicles, did not generate an alert before the crash because the fire truck was not equipped with a transponder.
“Air traffic controllers should know what’s before them, whether it’s on the airport surface or in the airspace. They should have that information to ensure safety,” she said.
The NTSB’s lead investigator Doug Brazy said the board was analysing more than 25 hours of cockpit voice recordings and 80 hours of flight data.
He said the final three minutes captured in the cockpit included the co-pilot transferring control to the captain six seconds before the recording ended.
The reason for this was unclear.
An audio recording from the air traffic tower showed a controller had cleared the truck to cross the runway before urgently ordering it to halt.
“Stop, truck one, stop!” the controller said moments before the crash.
Surveillance footage shared by US media captured the moment the plane smashed into the rescue vehicle as it crossed its path, sending both hurtling down the runway.
‘Blood everywhere’
The new details come as a young survivor recalled seeing “blood everywhere” after the crash.
“It felt like the landing was immediately off,” passenger Jack Cabot told the New York Post.
“There was an incredibly loud bang. It was a really, really hard landing.”
The 22-year-old, who was siting in row 18A in the middle of a plane near the wing during the collision, said a person next to him had suffered injuries to his face and a bleeding nose. Mr Cabot himself suffered whiplash.
“I still feel like I was one of the lucky ones. There were other people in a lot of pain,” he said.
He said passages stepped up to help others around him.
“Some people really stepped up in that moment, they organised themselves as a group,” he said.
“People were sharing coats. One person used a COVID mask to wipe blood off another person’s face.”
Second pilot identified
Antoine Forest, a 30-year-old from Québec, was earlier identified as one of the two Air Canada pilots killed in the crash.
The co-pilot has since been identified as Mackenzie Gunther, who graduated from the honours bachelor of aviation technology program at Seneca College in 2023.
“Seneca sends our deepest condolences to Mr Gunther’s family and friends, and to his former colleagues and professors. He will be deeply missed”, the college said in a statement.
“These were two young men at the start of their career, so it’s’s an absolute tragedy that we’re sitting here with their loss,” Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration, told reporters.
Over 40 other people were taken to the hospital, but many were discharged by Monday afternoon, said Kathryn Garcia, head of the city’s Port Authority.
She added that the two men in the damaged fire truck were expected to recover.
The plane was operated by Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, which said the CRJ-900 aircraft flew into LaGuardia from Montreal as Flight 8646.
A preliminary passenger list showed 76 people on board the flight, including four crew members, Jazz Aviation said in a statement.
– With AFP
