The plane and a fire truck collided at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday evening (22). The pilot and co-pilot lost their lives in the accident.
The aircraft was operated by Jazz Aviation, a partner of Air Canada, and was carrying 72 passengers and a crew of four. Arrived from Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, Canada.
Audio from the control tower, posted by the Live ATC monitoring site and broadcast by CNN, revealed that the fire truck was attempting to overrun the runway.
The vehicle was cleared to travel, but the air traffic controller tried to stop it several times. The operator can be heard yelling, “Stop, vehicle 1, stop, stop, stop!” and then instructs the aircraft to abort the landing.
“Jazz 646, I see you’ve collided with a vehicle, stay where you are. I know you can’t move. Emergency crews are on their way to you,” he continued.
A pilot asked if the runway was closed and the controller repeated the order to abort the landing, while another pilot, whose plane was on the ground, said “that was not good to see”.
“Yeah, I know, I was here. I was trying to contact them. I told them to stop and we handled an emergency earlier and I made a mistake,” the controller lamented.
Port Authority CEO Kathryn Garcia said the two pilots were confirmed dead and 41 passengers and crew were hospitalized, 32 of whom had been released.
Airports in the United States are experiencing labor shortages. On Sunday (22), Donald Trump announced that ICE agents would be assisting TSA staff starting Monday (23).
Trump already made a similar threat on Saturday (21), if the Democratic senators do not approve the budget of the Department of Homeland Security, amid the debate in the Senate about changing the operation of ICE.
Air Canada CRJ-900 has collided with a fire truck while landing at La Guardia Airport.
The plane, a Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada, struck a Port Authority vehicle that was responding a separate incident around 11:40 p.m., according to the Port Authority… pic.twitter.com/6fiEDMTMIj
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Source and images: Wikimedia Commons. This content is generated with the help of artificial intelligence and verified by the editors.
