LaGuardia Airport in New York was operating through a late-night runway emergency when an Air Canada regional flight landed and crashed into a fire truck, killing the pilot and co-pilot on the Montreal-to-New York trip. The crash occurred after controllers were juggling multiple moving parts on the ground, including efforts to handle a separate aviation emergency in which a United Airlines flight twice aborted takeoff and reported an odor from the back of the aircraft.
In the minutes leading up to the collision, audio recordings captured what an Associated Press report described as a chaotic exchange on the radio between the cockpit and air traffic control. The pilot, according to the recording, told the controllers that “Flight attendants in the back are feeling ill because of the odor,” and the crew would “need to go into any available gate at this time.” With no gate immediately available, the pilot and controllers continued coordinating over the radio as they tried to find a safe place to park the plane.
As controllers worked, the Air Traffic Control operation dispatched fire trucks to respond to the United Airlines aircraft and offered stairs to evacuate passengers, while also continuing to manage other arriving and departing traffic. Then, a warning cut across the frequency—“Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop”—just before the Air Canada flight landed and the collision occurred as the Canadian jet crossed the runway.
Investigators have not yet disclosed how many controllers were on duty at LaGuardia when the Air Canada flight and the fire truck carrying Port Authority of New York and New Jersey firefighters crossed paths. However, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the airport’s tower was generally “well staffed” and just short of its target of 37 controllers, with 33 assigned and seven more in training.
Duffy’s staffing comments came after he was confirmed as President Donald Trump’s transportation secretary the day before an Army helicopter and a passenger plane collided over the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, killing 67 people. In that broader context of aviation scrutiny, former FAA air traffic control chief Mike McCormick said investigators are likely to examine human factors such as how much overtime local controllers were working and how many consecutive days they had been on duty, particularly on the overnight shift when the crash occurred.
Aviation experts also pointed to the broader strain on the air traffic controller workforce as a key backdrop for the investigation. Alan Diehl, a former federal crash investigator, said controllers operate under stress even in normal conditions and that there is a shortage of 3,000 controllers nationwide. John Cox, the CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said the National Transportation Safety Board investigators would look at staffing and work-schedule issues and how they relate to whether a problem was a staffing or fatigue issue.
The report also cited a statement Monday from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association that emphasized the job’s weight and demands. The union said, “Air traffic controllers work every day to keep passengers and cargo moving safely and efficiently,” and it added that the responsibility “stays with us when tragedy occurs,” according to the statement. Roughly 20 minutes after the crash, a controller appeared to blame himself in a radio transmission, saying, “We were dealing with an emergency, and I messed up.”
The stress described by experts and unions has been building for years, the report said. It cited chronic FAA controller shortages and work conditions in which controllers routinely put in overtime and work six-day weeks, along with radar and communication systems that can briefly put them out of touch with incoming and departing aircraft. It also described the impact of federal government shutdowns, including a record 43-day shutdown last fall and a 35-day shutdown spanning December 2018 and January 2019, during which controllers were required to work without pay and training and hiring were halted or slowed.
At the same time, industry leaders and officials pointed to modernization efforts they said are underway. Chris Sununu, CEO of the airline trade group Airlines for America, said Congress has invested billions to upgrade aging technology and improve the system, adding that the air traffic control system has been under strain for “30 years” and that rebuilding the system has already produced “some pretty good successes.” Sununu pointed to the shift from paper flight progress strips to digital tools at many airports, the purchase of hundreds of new radar systems nationwide, and a traffic flow system with upgraded back-end technology expected later this year.
Associated Press reporters Mae Anderson in New York, Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.