Runway warning lights were functioning before deadly LaGuardia Airport collision: Preliminary NTSB report
Federal investigators revealed new details about last month's deadly collision between a regional Air Canada jet and a Port Authority maintenance truck at LaGuardia Airport, including a frantic series of apparent miscommunications in the seconds prior to the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report released Thursday indicates that the driver of the firetruck and the pilot attempted to swerve to avoid the March 22 collision between an Air Canada Express jet and the rescue-and-firefighting vehicle seconds before impact.
In an interview with the NTSB, the "turret operator" in the Port Authority truck said he recalled hearing the controller say "stop stop stop" several seconds before the crash but didn't know who that transmission was intended for, according to the report.
He then heard "Truck 1 stop stop stop," realized it was for their vehicle and noticed they had entered the runway, according to the report. As the truck turned left, he saw the airplane's lights on the runway.
Seconds later, the truck and the jet collided.
The report also noted that runway lights designed to warn ground vehicles of planes landing and taking off were functioning the night of the crash, however, it did not say why the fire truck did not stop for the lights.
Two pilots, Capt. Antoine Forest and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther, were killed, and 39 people, including the two Port Authority workers in the truck, were transported to the hospital, the NTSB said. One flight attendant, Solange Tremblay, was thrown from the plane and suffered fractures to her leg.
There were two controllers in the LGA tower the night of the crash but one controller was doing two jobs while the other controller was coordinating a different emergency, according to the NTSB. Two controllers are standard for this shift and time, the report noted.
Before the accident, the ground controller, who was also the controller in charge, had been dealing with a plane that performed two rejected takeoffs and subsequently declared an emergency, the report said.
While the ground controller was coordinating all of this, the local controller took over transmitting ATC on both the ground and local radio frequencies, according to the NTSB.
The runway warning lights illuminated 33 seconds before the accident occurred, and five seconds later the firetruck requested for "Truck 1 and company" to cross runway 4 at taxiway D, the NTSB's report said.
The local controller gave them permission to cross, and the flight was 4,400 feet away from the crash site and 130 feet above the ground, according to the report.
The controller told the truck to stop 12 seconds before the crash, but the firetruck's speed continued to increase.
Four seconds before the crash, the controller again told the fire truck to stop. At this point, the firetruck was 100 feet away from entering the runway, traveling at 29 mph.
Just before the crash, the truck turned to the left and the airplane's rudder turned 6 degrees to the left -- indicating that both the truck and the plane attempted to swerve to avoid the collision.
The truck was traveling at a speed of 29 miles per hour while the plane was traveling at a speed of approximately 104 miles per hour at the time of the crash, according to the report.
The report said Forest was hired by the airline in 2022 and had over 3,500 flight hours of experience. Gunter was hired by the airline in 2024 and had 718 hours of experience, according to the NTSB.
The report also provided more details about the truck driver, who was injured saying he had three years of experience being in airport firefighting operations and had been on the shift for over five hours.
The turret operator had 12 years of experience and had been working the shift for over four hours.
A final cause is yet to be determined as the investigation continues, and a final report will be released in 12 to 24 months.
