NEW YORK (AP) — In a harrowing incident at LaGuardia Airport, a fire truck was mistakenly cleared to cross a runway just moments before an Air Canada flight was about to land. With only 12 seconds to avert disaster, the collision resulted in the tragic deaths of both pilots, federal investigators disclosed on Tuesday.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is delving deeply into the safety system failures that led to the fire truck’s unauthorized presence on the runway this past Sunday night. Their investigation aims to uncover the breakdowns in the airport’s extensive safety protocols that should have prevented such a catastrophe.

Key areas of focus include examining whether the standard practice of having just two air traffic controllers on duty overnight is sufficient, why the runway’s warning system failed to alert personnel of an impending collision, and determining who held responsibility for coordinating both air and ground traffic at the time. Additionally, investigators are seeking to understand if the fire truck received and comprehended the controller’s desperate last-minute warnings to halt.

“We rarely, if ever, encounter a major accident stemming from a single point of failure,” remarked NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. “A cascade of errors must have occurred for this tragedy to unfold.”

The Air Canada flight, which originated from Montreal and carried over 70 passengers, collided with the fire truck, resulting in injuries to several passengers. However, thanks to swift emergency responses, most were able to evacuate the severely damaged aircraft. Remarkably, a flight attendant, who remained strapped in her seat, survived after being ejected onto the tarmac during the impact.

NTSB investigators have not yet interviewed the firefighters, who were also injured, or found whether they braked or turned to avoid the collision, Homendy said.

2 controllers were on duty at the time of crash

Investigators want to know more about the role of the air traffic controllers and what they were doing while juggling a late-night emergency involving another plane — a strong odor reported in the cabin of an outbound United Airlines jet.

Homendy warned against jumping to conclusions.

“I would caution against pointing fingers at controllers and saying distraction was involved. This is a heavy workload environment,” she said.

Having two controllers on duty in the control tower is typical for a late night shift but has long been a concern for the NTSB, she said. Both were early into the their shift when the crash happened.

The tower at LaGuardia had been busier than expected Sunday night because flight delays pushed the number of arrivals and departures after 10 p.m. to more than double what was scheduled, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Planes were landing every few minutes, with a dozen flights arriving between 11 p.m. and when the crash happened less than 40 minutes later. At the same time, the tower was coordinating the emergency response to the unusual odor making flight attendants feel ill.

Jeff Guzzetti, an aviation safety expert who used to investigate crashes for both the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration, said this crash may lead to questions about whether having two controllers on the overnight shift is enough at major airports.

That has been the minimum since 2018, when the FAA imposed that requirement after several instances of controllers falling asleep while working solo.

FAA encouraged airports to install transponders on vehicles

LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system to help eliminate dangerous runway incursions and prevent crashes.

Controllers in these airports have a display in the tower that’s supposed to show them the location of every plane and vehicle.

The system, known as ASDE-X, didn’t work as intended this time because the fire truck wasn’t outfitted with a transponder, Homendy said. There were also emergency vehicles behind the fire truck that stopped in time, and the close proximity of the vehicles merging kept the system from triggering an alarm, she said.

More work is needed to determine whether an alert could have prevented the crash, she said.

Just last May, the FAA urged the 35 airports that have advanced surface surveillance systems like LaGuardia’s to equip their vehicles with transponders and said federal money was available to help pay for them.

While the NTSB hasn’t recommended that vehicles on airport grounds have transponders, they should be standard equipment, Homendy said.

“Air traffic controllers should know what’s before them, whether it’s on airport surface or in the airspace. They should have that information to ensure safety,” she said.

Asked about the lack of a transponder in the fire truck, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said it was “unable to comment due to the ongoing investigation.”

Timeline shows the final seconds before impact

The NTSB laid out a timeline of the final moments after reviewing the Air Canada jet’s cockpit voice recorder, which authorities recovered by cutting a hole in the aircraft’s roof.

Investigators said that 25 seconds before the crash, the fire truck asked to cross the same runway where the plane had already been cleared to land nearly two minutes earlier.

One controller cleared the truck to cross the runway five seconds later, when the plane was a little more than 100 feet (30 meters) from the ground, the NTSB found.

Then, just nine seconds before the two collided, the tower told the fire truck to stop — a second before the plane’s landing gear touched down, the NTSB said.

Homendy said that it appears that the airport’s runway status lights were working, which might have warned the fire truck driver not to cross the runway even if the controller approved it.

The lights embedded in the pavement are designed to automatically turn red when a runway is occupied to signal to vehicle operators and pilots not enter that runway.

The controller could also see the vehicles and the plane out the tower window, said John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems. But there simply may not have been enough time to prevent the crash once the fire truck pulled onto the runway.

Travel delays mount after LaGuardia crash

The crash came at a time of increasing frustration with air travel in the U.S., caused by long security lines because of the government shutdown, winter storms and rising costs.

While flights resumed Monday at LaGuardia — the New York region’s third busiest airport — the runway where the collision happened was still closed.

About one quarter of the airport’s flights were canceled Tuesday, according to FlightAware.com, and there were significant delays averaging more than four hours. But it did not appear the cancellations were spilling over to other airports around the U.S.

The pilot and copilot who died in the first fatal crash at LaGuardia in 34 years were both based out of Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority.

About 40 people, including the two from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals. Some suffered serious injuries, most were released within hours, and others walked away without needing treatment.

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Authorities are examining whether the firetruck involved in a collision with an Air Canada aircraft lacked a functioning transponder, which could have caused air traffic controllers to miss vital warnings about the runway hazard.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has shared initial findings from their investigation into the incident. They revealed that the ASDE-X (Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X) safety system failed to alert controllers as it should have.

Designed to monitor the movement of both aircraft and ground vehicles, the system did not issue alerts during the Sunday night incident involving the Air Canada plane.

“Controllers should have all the necessary tools to perform their duties efficiently,” stated Jennifer Homendy, Chairperson of the National Transportation Safety Board, during a briefing.

“Whether it’s tracking aircraft or vehicles on taxiways, they should be fully equipped,” she added.

Homendy made the announcement as the fallout from the crash continues, with passengers flying out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport having to taxi past the still visible wreckage.

LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system to help eliminate dangerous runway incursions and prevent crashes.

Controllers in these airports have a ASDE-X display in the tower that’s supposed to show them the location of every plane and vehicle.

Investigators are looking into the possibility that the firetruck that collided with an Air Canada jet didn’t have a transponder, which would let the air traffic controller off the hook for the deadly collision 

It comes as the fallout from the crash continues, with passengers flying out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport having to taxi past the still visible wreckage

The shocking development would mean the controller who sent a fire truck into the path of the Air Canada plane may not be solely to blame. 

‘We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure,’ Homendy told The Wall Street Journal.

‘Our aviation system is incredibly safe because there are multiple, multiple layers of defense built in to prevent an accident. So when something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong.’  

More work is needed to determine whether an alert could have prevented the crash, she said. 

The fire truck, which had been given permission to cross the runway to respond to an incident with the United plane, pulled onto the runway less than 20 seconds before impact, investigators said.  

Just last May, the FAA urged airports that have advanced surface surveillance systems like LaGuardia’s to equip their vehicles with transponders.

While the NTSB hasn’t recommended that vehicles on airport grounds have transponders, they should be standard equipment, Homendy said.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairperson Jennifer Homendy (pictured) is now looking into the possibility that the controller who sent a fire truck into the path of the Air Canada plane may not be solely to blame 

Terrified pilots have raised the alarm over LaGuardia’s problems with air traffic control and miscommunication long before a crash on its runway on Sunday claimed the lives of two people

‘Air traffic controllers should know what’s before them, whether it’s on airport surface or in the airspace. They should have that information to ensure safety,’ she said.

Asked about the lack of a transponder in the fire truck, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said it was ‘unable to comment due to the ongoing investigation.’

Other possible issues being probed include possible multi-tasking by night shift controllers.  

‘The midnight shift, as a reminder, is one that we have many times at the NTSB raised concerns about with respect to fatigue,’ she said. 

Meanwhile, Homendy noted there’s still a ‘tremendous amount of debris’ at the scene, meaning passengers taking off and landing at LaGuardia now have to stare the wreckage down.

The scene was expected to be cleared until the completion of the NTSB investigation. 

‘At first I was just shocked at the proximity, it was right there. It’s shocking, you land and it’s the first thing you see when you’re on the tarmac,’ Sherrie Katanach, who flew in from Chicago, told The New York Post. 

‘That was unbelievable to me,’ added Sherman Criner, who was returning from a longshoremen convention in New Orleans. 

Pilots have previously flagged a number of close calls at LaGuardia – including one in October 2024 when two Delta aircraft collided on the runway (pictured), snapping a wing and injuring one person

An Air Canada Express CRJ-900 sits on the runway on Tuesday after colliding with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York City late Sunday night

‘I figured they would get that off the runaway as quickly as possible, but from the plane you could see it still sitting there.’ 

It was revealed earlier Tuesday that the air traffic controller continued to work after the deadly crash, the NTSB revealed.

Homendy said that the unidentified controller was ‘still on duty for several minutes’ after the plane slammed into the truck late Sunday night.

‘Normally they would be relieved,’ Homendy said during a press briefing. ‘We have questions about that. Was anybody available to relieve that controller? We don’t know that yet.’ 

Investigators are working to determine what happened during shift change, who else was in the air traffic control tower and who was available at the time of the crash.

Officials have questions about the role of the air traffic controllers and whether they were distracted while juggling a late night emergency with another plane. 

The Air Canada plane carrying 72 passengers and four crew collided with the fire truck while landing, killing the two pilots and injuring several passengers. 

Federal investigators said a runway warning system didn’t trigger an alarm before the jet and truck collided at the New York City airport.

Antoine Forest, 30, was killed upon impact when the Air Canada flight he was flying from Montreal collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia International Airport on Sunday night

The fire truck was completely destroyed by the wreck, but both firefighters were expected to survive

The collision late Sunday came after the fire truck was given permission to check on a United plane that had aborted its takeoff after reporting an odor on board and started crossing the runway. 

An air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop on realizing disaster was imminent. 

Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appears to blame himself. ‘We were dealing with an emergency earlier,’ the controller said. ‘I messed up.’

Many questions remain about why the airport fire truck was crossing the runway while the plane was landing and why it didn’t stop despite frantic, last-second warnings from the control tower. 

Homendy said NTSB investigators have not yet had a chance to review data from the flight data recorder, but that she has seen surveillance video and still needs to interview the firefighters in the truck to find out whether they braked or turned to avoid a collision.

The wreckage from the crash remained on the closed runway, which is likely to stay shut down for days during the investigation, Homendy added.

Investigators need to sift through a lot of debris, she said.

Authorities recovered the plane’s cockpit and flight data recorders by cutting a hole in the aircraft’s roof and then drove them to the NTSB lab in Washington for analysis, Homendy said.

About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals. 

Some suffered serious injuries, but by Monday morning, most had been released, and others walked away without needing treatment.  

The pilot and copilot who died in the first fatal crash at LaGuardia in 34 years were both based out of Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.

Jeannette Gagnier, the great aunt of one of the pilots, identified him as Antoine Forest, and said he always wanted to be a pilot.

The crash on Sunday night is not the first dangerous incident at LaGuardia in recent history, with air traffic controllers and pilots alike claiming the airport is plagued by miscommunications and staffing issues.

A CNN review of government records revealed a number of close calls and near disasters have been reported to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System by concerned pilots. 

This included just months ago in October, when two Delta Airlines jets collided on the taxiway, hospitalizing one person as the wing of one of the aircrafts was snapped off. 

Previous incidents flagged in the system also include a December 2024 close call, where a plane came perilously close to smashing into another aircraft on the ground, blaming inaccurate instructions from air traffic control. 

Sunday night’s crash bears eerie similarities to that incident and happened when an air traffic controller told a fire truck to cross a runway to inspect a United aircraft experiencing technical difficulties. 

Moments later the unidentified air traffic controller begged the truck to stop, but it was too late and the vehicle collided with the Air Canada plane.

Months before that in July 2023, a pilot reported to the NASA system that two aircraft almost collided after air traffic controllers said one was cleared to cross a runway that another jet was landing on. 

The report said air traffic controllers only realized their mistake at the last second, noting that it ‘issued a stop command just in time.’ 

The deadly crash on Sunday night shut down LaGuardia – the New York region’s third busiest hub – during what was already a chaotic time at US airports because of a partial government shutdown.

Flights resumed Monday afternoon on one runway and with lengthy delays. The shutdown caused some disruptions at other airports, too, especially for Delta, which has a major presence at LaGuardia.

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 FAA has been chronically short on air traffic controllers for years.

A tragic incident unfolded in Alabama when a mother expecting her second child was tragically killed by a determined stalker, who subsequently took his own life as authorities closed in on him.

Shelby Amidon, aged 29, lost her life at her residence in Warrior on Thursday morning, as confirmed by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. The assailant was identified as Ricky O’Neil Beck Jr.

Amidon, who was both married and pregnant, managed to call 911 after the shooting, identifying Beck as her stalker, according to reports by AL.com. It appears that Beck had been following her for some time, though the nature of their relationship remains unclear.

Authorities are still investigating how Amidon and Beck were connected.

Following the incident, Beck fled the scene in his Chevrolet Z71, which was equipped with a distinctive silver toolbox, prompting a local police alert.

Senior ALEA Trooper Brandon Bailey said he saw Beck pull out a gun while ramming a responding Blount County sheriff deputy’s patrol vehicle, the outlet reported.

The deputy opened fire, but Beck was able to get away — sparking a manhunt.

Beck’s body was found in a wooded area later that same day, where he appeared to have shot himself, Bailey told the outlet.

The Alabama State Bureau of Investigation is still investigating.

Amidon was married to Nick Amidon, a data analyst at a local bank. The two share one young son, according to a GoFundMe organized by Nick’s mother.

“Shelby was a beautiful soul who brought love, warmth, and light to those around her. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her,” she wrote.

“No family should ever have to endure this kind of pain.”

The GoFundMe was close to clearing the $12,000 mark as of Tuesday evening.