NEW YORK (AP) — A firefighter whose truck collided with an Air Canada jet on the runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport last month, killing both pilots, heard an air traffic controller yell “stop, stop, stop” but didn’t know who it was for, federal investigators said Thursday.
The National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report that the crash prevention system did not generate an audio or visual alert at the control tower and that the runway entrance lights, which act as stop lights for crossing traffic, were on for about three seconds before the March 22 collision. The system is designed to turn off the lights two or three seconds before a plane approaches an intersection, the report said.
After the air traffic controller’s initial warning, the fire truck’s turret operator heard the controller say “Truck 1, stop, stop, stop” and realized he was telling the truck to stop, the report said. By then, the truck was already on the runway as Air Canada Express Flight 8646 was landing and speeding toward it.
The turret operator, one of two crew members on the fire truck, recalled seeing the lights of the airplane on the runway as the vehicle turned left, the report said, summarizing an interview investigators conducted with him.
The frantic warning came after air traffic controllers cleared the truck to cross the runway 12 seconds before the plane touched down, investigators said.
The CRJ900 regional jet from Montreal was carrying more than 70 passengers. Pilots Antoine Forrest, 24, and Mackenzie Gunther, 30, were killed. About 40 people, including two people riding in the fire engine, were taken to the hospital.
A flight attendant who was lying in his seat survived after being thrown onto the tarmac.
The fire truck was leading a convoy of six vehicles, including four fire trucks, a ladder truck and a police vehicle, responding to the emergency after a strong odor was reported in the cabin of an outbound United Airlines jet.
The night of the tower crash at LaGuardia was busier than usual because flight delays pushed the number of arrivals and departures after 10 p.m. to double than scheduled, according to data from aviation analytics firm Serium.
Planes were landing every few minutes, with a dozen flights arriving at 11 a.m. and less than 40 minutes after the crash. At the same time, the tower was coordinating an emergency response to an unusual smell that was making flight attendants feel sick.
LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system to help eliminate dangerous runway incursions and prevent accidents. Controllers at these airports have a display in the tower that shows the location of each aircraft and vehicle.
The system, known as ASDE-X, did not work as intended at the time because the fire trucks were not equipped with transponders, investigators said. There were also emergency vehicles behind the truck, and the proximity of the vehicles prevented the system from sounding the alarm, investigators said.
According to air traffic control transmissions, Flight 8646 was cleared to land on Runway 4 at 11:35 p.m.
About two minutes later — and 25 seconds before the crash — fire crews asked to cross the same runway, which is the airport’s fire station and where the United Airlines jet was parked.
Five seconds later, as Flight 8646 approached the runway a little more than 100 feet (30 m) from the ground, an air traffic controller cleared the fire truck to cross the runway.
Then, nine seconds before the crash, the controller told the fire crew: “Stop, stop, stop, stop. Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop, stop.” A second later, the plane’s landing gear touched down.
It was the first fatal crash at LaGuardia in 34 years. ___
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
