A tragedy involving an Air Canada flight occurred late last night. Jeff Guzzetti, a retired aircraft accident investigator, now weighs in on the situation.
Officials have released more details about the horrific accident involving an Air Canada Express passenger plane and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The Bombardier CRJ-900 twin-jet aircraft was operating as Jazz Aviation Flight 8646 on behalf of the Canadian carrier. It was bound from Montreal to New York with 76 passengers on board when it collided with a Port Authority truck on Runway 4 at a speed of 24 miles per hour, according to FlightRadar24.
Both the pilot and co-pilot died in the incident. A new air traffic control (ATC) audio clip circulating online captures the seconds leading up to the collision. In the clip, controllers can be heard shouting: “Stop, stop, stop. Stop, Truck 1, stop!”
LaGuardia Airport plane crash
According to Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia, the two officers driving the fire truck are currently in stable condition in the hospital.
LaGuardia Airport released a statement saying: “At approximately 11:40 p.m. on Sunday, a Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada was involved in an incident on Runway 4 at LaGuardia Airport in which the aircraft struck a Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident.
“Emergency response protocols were immediately activated. The Port Authority Police Department is on scene along with the agency’s Chairman and Executive Director. The airport is currently closed to facilitate the response and allow for a thorough investigation.
“This is a developing situation based on preliminary information. The Port Authority Police Department is working closely with our airline partners as well as federal authorities and will provide additional updates as more details become available.”
“That vehicle needs to follow the orders of the controller”
Jeff Guzzetti, a retired aircraft accident investigator and NBC News aviation analyst, said that taxiing aircraft and vehicles on the ground must maintain constant communication with air traffic control to avoid collisions.
“That vehicle needs to follow the orders of the controller, just like any airplane would to avoid this type of situation right here,” he said, according to NBC, adding that ground collisions are a “rare occurrence.”
“I can’t even think of the last time we had a collision on the ground between an airplane and a vehicle that resulted in critical injuries,” he added.
Guzzetti also noted that, based on the information available, there do not appear to have been any problems with the plane itself. Instead, he said it was likely an “operational issue involving either the pilot, the controller, or the vehicle driver.”