Collision between aircraft and emergency vehicle at a New York airport
Noman Sabit: A plane landing at LaGuardia Airport collided with an emergency vehicle on the runway, killing the pilot and the co-pilot and badly injuring two Port Authority police officers, according to sources.
The collision occurred after 11:30 p.m. Sunday at the Queens airport, FDNY officials said. An Air Canada plane was nearing the end of its landing procedure when it collided with a Port Authority firetruck manned by police officers that was on the runway, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The pilot and co-pilot of the plane died in the collision, two sources told NBC New York.
Two Port Authority police officers were injured and taken to area hospitals, two sources told NBC New York. The two PAPD members — a sergeant and an officer suffered broken bones in the collision, but were expected to recover.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members onboard the plane, according to sources. A senior official said more than a dozen people on board suffered various injuries, many of whom were taken to Elmhurst Hospital or Queens Presbyterian Hospital. Flight AC8646, a Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada Express, had taken off from Montréal Sunday evening, according to statement from the airline.
Two sources said the plane was traveling about 30 mph at the time it collided with the truck on Runway 4. For comparison, when taxiing on the tarmac, planes typically travel about 5 mph. A Port Authority spokesperson said the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle was responding to a separate incident aboard a United flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odor."
Chilling audio from the moments before the crash, an air traffic controller could be heard on a radio transmission giving clearance to fire truck to cross part of the tarmac, then quickly instructing it to stop multiple times before the audio cuts out.
“Truck 1, stop, stop, stop. Stop, Truck 1. Stop,” the transmission says.
City officials said to expect cancellations, road closures, traffic delays and a heavy FDNY presence near LaGuardia as a result of the incident, advising those on the roads to avoid the area. All streets and highway exits into the airport were closed until further notice, the NYPD said.
The airport was put under a full ground stop and will remain closed until 2 p.m. Monday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
What caused the collision was not immediately clear. An investigation is ongoing. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was gathering information regarding the situation and was launching a go team to investigate. It did not provide any other details early Monday.
The FAA said in a brief statement that is would be investigating the incident as well. Air traffic controllers are not impacted by the partial government shutdown that has caused long delays at airport security checkpoints in recent days. They have been affected by past shutdowns.
The collision occurred following an evening featuring bands of heavy rain across the New York City area. Video footage from the scene showed water on the tarmac as a result of the rain, but it wasn't clear whether rain or weather conditions played a role in the incident.
Visibility dropped to about three miles at the time of the collision, with rain and mist coming down.
Deadly accident could have been avoided: FAA accused of negligence
The deadly plane crash at LaGuardia Airport was an avoidable “clear error” likely the result of the Federal Aviation Administration “not doing their job,” a former inspector general with the Department of Transportation told The Post early Monday.
Mary Schiavo said there appeared to be clear confusion between the control tower and ground control when the Air Canada plane smashed into a fire truck, killing two pilots and injuring dozens.
“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 coordinate with each other,” Schiavo explained. “So clearly they either did not coordinate, or they did and were just wrong. But giving a fire truck clearance across to 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.”
The regional jet from Montreal, operated by Jazz Aviation, collided with the fire truck just before midnight Sunday on Runway 4 at the Queens transit hub. The truck was responding to a separate incident on another plane.
A pilot and co-pilot were killed in the mangled front of the jet, with 41 people — including two cops on the rescue vehicle — hospitalized. The crash remains under investigation, but 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 Schiavo, who was the DOT inspector general from 1990 to 1996.
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