{"id":679450,"date":"2026-03-24T23:54:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/679450\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T23:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T23:54:31","slug":"laguardia-airports-runway-safety-system-did-not-alert-at-time-of-deadly-air-canada-jet-and-fire-truck-collision-ntsb-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/679450\/","title":{"rendered":"LaGuardia airport’s runway safety system ‘did not alert’ at time of deadly Air Canada jet and fire truck collision, NTSB says"},"content":{"rendered":"

The airport runway safety system at New York City\u2019s LaGuardia Airport \u201cdid not alert\u201d air traffic controllers before an Air Canada jet and a fire truck collided on the runway on Sunday night, investigators said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The crash killed two pilots and injured dozens of passengers, many of whom have since been released from the hospital, officials said.<\/p>\n

National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy said Tuesday that LaGuardia has a surface detection system on the runway that allows air traffic controllers to track the movement of planes and vehicles, but the system \u201cdid not alert.\u201d<\/p>\n

An analysis of the system found that it \u201cdid not generate an alert due to the close proximity of vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway, resulting in the inability to create a track of high confidence,” Homendy said at a Tuesday news conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The NTSB also found that the fire truck involved in the collision did not have a transponder, which identifies a vehicle and its location, so the truck wouldn\u2019t have been visible on certain air traffic control systems. Homendy later added that none of the trucks at LaGuardia had transponders. \u201cThere are transponders on other trucks at other airports across the nation, and in this case they did not have transponders,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A damaged Port Authority fire truck near the runway on March 23 after it collided with an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 at LaGuardia Airport.<\/p>\n

(Timothy A. Clary\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

NTSB investigators cannot confirm how many controllers were on duty at the time of the collision because of conflicting log entries. They do know that two people \u2014 the local controller and the controller in charge \u2014 were staffed in the air traffic control tower at the time of the collision. Two controllers are \u201cthe standard operating procedure for LaGuardia for the midnight shift,\u201d Homendy said, adding that the controller in charge was performing the duties of two operators.<\/p>\n

While the NTSB has been concerned about fatigue from the midnight shift in prior investigations, there is no evidence to suggest fatigue was an issue so far in this investigation, Homendy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would caution against pointing fingers at controllers and saying distraction was involved,\u201d Homendy told reporters. \u201cThis is a heavy workload environment.\u201d She stressed that it\u2019s rare for aviation accidents to be caused by just one single failure. \u201cWhen something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Investigators are currently analyzing cockpit and flight data and still need to interview key witnesses in the collision, including the two injured Port Authority employees who were inside the fire truck, as well as the air traffic controllers.<\/p>\n

Homendy declined to identify the two pilots who were killed and referred reporters to the New York City chief medical examiner.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Air Canada Express jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia on March 23.<\/p>\n

(New York Daily News via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

LaGuardia Airport, located in the Queens borough of New York City, is experiencing significant delays and cancellations on Tuesday. The crash damaged the aircraft\u2019s nose and prompted LaGuardia to shut down on Monday morning, leading air traffic to be diverted. Flights resumed at a reduced capacity at 2 p.m. ET on Monday, but the Federal Aviation Administration doesn\u2019t expect<\/a> the runway where the accident happened to reopen until Friday.<\/p>\n

Homendy said<\/a> Monday evening there is a \u201ctremendous amount of debris\u201d from the collision, all of which investigators need to go through, collect and document as evidence before that runway could be reopened.<\/p>\n

FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Monday that the two pilots who died were \u201cyoung men at the start of their careers\u201d and called the incident an \u201cabsolute tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the crash, a flight attendant was found still strapped in a jump seat after it had been ejected from the aircraft, multiple<\/a> media<\/a> outlets<\/a> reported. The employee was injured but is expected to survive. There was also an unaccompanied minor on the flight, and they have since been reunited with their family, Garcia said.<\/p>\n

The Air Canada plane, operated by Jazz Aviation, carried 72 passengers and four crew members.<\/p>\n

The fire truck involved in the collision was traveling across the runway to respond to a separate incident on board a United Airlines flight that had reported an odor issue. Moments before the crash, audio of an air traffic controller revealed that they gave clearance to a vehicle to cross part of the tarmac. Moments later, a controller can be heard saying<\/a>, \u201cStop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop, truck 1, stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the audio transmission, a distraught controller appears to say<\/a>, \u201cWe were dealing with an emergency earlier, and I messed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preliminary data shows that the Air Canada plane was traveling between 93 and 105 mph when it collided with the fire truck, ABC News<\/a> reported, citing FlightRadar24.<\/p>\n

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that he\u2019s been asking Congress \u201cfor additional money\u201d for air traffic control. \u201cWe are modernizing our system, but we can\u2019t fully modernize it until the Congress gives us the additional money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not saying that this crash would have been prevented if we had all the equipment deployed,\u201d Duffy added, \u201cbut it\u2019s important if we care about air travel safety, we care about having a brand-new air traffic control system, the best in the world, with the best equipment, virtually all of it developed here in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Trump called the fatal accident \u201cterrible\u201d as he answered a question from a reporter on Monday morning in Florida. \u201cThey made a mistake. It\u2019s a dangerous business,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney called the collision \u201cdeeply saddening\u201d in a Monday post on X<\/a>. He expressed his sympathies, writing, \u201cMy thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those impacted.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Air Canada passenger recounted her experience on board the plane as it collided with the fire truck. \u201cWhen we landed, everyone felt it,\u201d Rebecca Liquori told News 12<\/a>. \u201cThe plane, like, jolted, and you heard the pilot try to brake, like he was trying to prevent the collision that occurred.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA couple seconds later, it was just a very loud boom, and everybody just jolted out of their seats, people hit their heads, people were bleeding,\u201d Liquori recalled.<\/p>\n

The fatal accident adds to airport disruptions<\/a> in the U.S. linked to the ongoing partial government shutdown. Transportation Security Administration employees have been working without pay since the shutdown began on Feb. 14, prompting thousands to call out of work. Staffing shortages<\/a> have plagued U.S. airports, leading to long lines and extended wait times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The airport runway safety system at New York City\u2019s LaGuardia Airport \u201cdid not alert\u201d air traffic controllers before…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":676990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[20577,159057,128425,64,11769,248807,285294,7833,403,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-679450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-air-canada","tag-air-traffic-control","tag-air-traffic-controllers","tag-business","tag-collision","tag-fire-truck","tag-jennifer-homendy","tag-laguardia-airport","tag-new-york-city","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116286853520252412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}