An Air Canada Express plane with 76 people aboard collided with a fire truck shortly after landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late on Sunday, killing the two pilots.
The captain and copilot died in the collision that occurred at about 11:40pm, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said early yesterday. Forty-one people — including two airport rescue officers — were taken to the hospital. The airport was to be closed at least 2pm yesterday.
The plane, which took off from Montreal, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew, Jazz Aviation LP, which was operating the flight, said in a statement. It hit a Port Authority truck shortly after touching down and came to a standstill about halfway down the runway.
Photo: AFP
Photos from the scene showed the front quarter of the plane, including the cockpit, shorn off, with debris dangling from the nose section. A demolished yellow rig lay behind the plane.
A recording of the air traffic control communication at the time of the incident shows “Truck 1 and company” requested to cross runway 4, which was where the Air Canada jet was due to land. The truck was responding to an emergency declared minutes earlier by a United Airlines Holdings Inc flight, which reported a sickly smell in the cabin.
A subsequent unidentified voice, likely an air traffic controller, told Truck 1 to “cross 4 at delta.” Subsequently, the unidentified voice said “stop, stop, stop, stop Truck 1, stop, stop stop. Stop Truck 1.”
Photo: :Reuters
The unidentified controller then said to the pilots: “I see you collided with a vehicle there. Just hold position. I know you can’t move. Vehicles responding to you now.”
Poor weather had caused flight disruptions at LaGuardia earlier on Sunday.
It is still too early to tell what went wrong, and investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will now start collecting facts, interviewing people, downloading recordings and reviewing data from flight recorders, aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said.
The aircraft involved in the collision was a 20-year-old CRJ-900LR, records show, according to Flightradar24.
The incident is the third major commercial aviation accident on US soil in just 15 months. In January last year, an American Airlines Group Inc regional jet collided with a military helicopter near Washington, leaving no survivors. That was one of the deadliest US air disasters in decades and put more scrutiny on the long-running shortage of air-traffic controllers.
In November, a United Parcel Service Inc cargo jet crashed and exploded shortly after takeoff from Louisville, Kentucky. At least seven people were killed.
The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating a close call at Newark Liberty International Airport last week in which an Alaska Airlines Inc Boeing 737 overflew a FedEx Corp Boeing 777 while both were attempting to land on crossing runways.
Additional reporting by AP
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