4 days ago
1
NEW YORK (AP) — 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 night.
Among the areas being explored are whether the common practice of two controllers on duty overnight is enough, why a runway warning system didn’t alert the possibility of a crash, who was coordinating air and ground traffic, and whether the fire truck heard the controller’s last-second pleas to stop.
“We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure,” said Jennifer Homendy, NTSB chair. “When something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong.”
Several passengers were injured when the Air Canada plane, which originated in Montreal and carried more than 70 people, slammed into the fire truck. Most, though, were able to Read Entire Article
English (US) ·