The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released audio of the last three minutes before the collision between an Air Canada plane and a truck that occurred at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday (22nd).
The captain and first officer of Flight 8646 died in the accident. Additionally, 40 people were injured in a collision with a fire truck.
NTSB Chief Aviation Investigator Doug Brasey shared a timeline of the last three minutes before the crash Tuesday.
3 minutes and 7 seconds before the aircraft from Montreal landed in New York, the approach controller instructed the aircraft to contact LaGuardia Tower.
The crew communicated with the control tower and received clearance to land on Runway 4 2 minutes and 27 seconds before the accident. The aircraft was second in the landing queue.
At 1 minute and 26 seconds into the audio recording, the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System issued an electronic alert reading “1,000,” meaning the aircraft was 1,000 feet above the ground.
The airport vehicle attempted to establish radio contact with the control tower, but the communication was blocked by another radio signal at 1 minute and 3 seconds.
At the same time the aircraft was approaching Runway 4, fire trucks were cleared to cross the same runway 25 seconds before impact.
Twelve seconds before impact, air traffic control instructed the Frontier flight to remain in its holding position. The fire truck was ordered to stop 9 seconds before the collision. According to Doug Brasey, the landing gear can be heard hitting the ground.
The recording ended shortly after one pilot handed over control to another.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendi said the air traffic controller in charge of ground operations at the New York airport at the time had not yet been identified.
+Listen to the full audio of the Air Canada accident
Source and image: Wikimedia Commons. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by our editorial team.
