Air traffic controller kept working after deadly LaGuardia crash
NTSB questions why the controller remained on duty after the incident that killed two pilots and injured over 40 people.
4:02 PM
The air traffic controller on duty when an Air Canada plane crashed into a rescue truck at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday continued working for several minutes after the deadly incident, raising questions from federal investigators about staffing protocols.
Two pilots were killed and more than 40 people sustained injuries when Air Canada Flight 8646 collided with a Port Authority fire truck around 11:45 p.m. Sunday on Runway 4. Only two air traffic controllers were on duty at the time, according to National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Jennifer Homendy.
One of the two controllers cleared the emergency vehicle to cross the runway to respond to an incident on another aircraft just as the Air Canada jet was landing. That same controller remained on duty for several minutes after the crash, Homendy said during an investigation briefing Tuesday.
"We know that that controller was still on duty for several minutes afterwards. Normally, they would be relieved," Homendy said. "We have questions about that. Was anybody available to relieve that controller? We don't know that yet."
Homendy cautioned against premature conclusions about controller error. "We have to be very careful about pointing fingers at controllers and saying distraction was involved," she said, noting that some reports had made such claims.
The National Transportation Safety Board senior aviation investigator Doug Brazy provided details about the flight's final moments. The cockpit recorder revealed how the trip from Montreal turned from routine to tragic within three minutes. The approach phase began three minutes and seven seconds before the flight touched down in New York, according to the timeline Brazy presented.
The collision occurred on Runway 4/22 at the airport in Queens. Investigators examined the wreckage of the Air Canada Express jet using lifting equipment to assess the damage and gather evidence.
The incident has drawn attention to longstanding concerns at LaGuardia. Pilots have filed dozens of reports over three decades documenting controller miscommunication and close calls with ground vehicles at the airport, according to records reviewed by CBS News from publicly available databases.
An airline captain who experienced a close call with another aircraft last summer filed an anonymous report with NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System. The captain reported that air traffic control failed to provide guidance about a departing flight that crossed their runway approximately ten seconds before he landed.
"The pace of operations is building in LGA. The controllers are pushing the line. On thunderstorm days, LGA is starting to feel like DCA did before the accident there," the captain wrote in the report, referencing LaGuardia and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The reports in the safety database document patterns of concern at the airport dating back years, with pilots requesting intervention. "Please do something," one captain wrote in a report filed last summer regarding the close call incident.