The United States’ National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released the audio recording of the last 3 minutes before the crash between the Air Canada plane and a truck, which occurred at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday (22).
The pilot and co-pilot of flight 8646 lost their lives in the accident. Another 40 people were injured in the collision with a fire truck.
NTSB lead aviation investigator Doug Brazy shared a timeline of the last 3 minutes leading up to the crash on Tuesday (24).
3 minutes and 7 seconds before the flight from Montreal was to land in New York, the approach controller directed the plane to contact the LaGuardia Tower.
The crew contacted the airport control tower, which cleared landing on Runway 4 2 minutes and 27 seconds before the accident. The aircraft was the second in the landing sequence.
At 1 minute 26 seconds into the recording, the Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System gave an electronic “1,000” indication, indicating that the aircraft was 1,000 feet above the ground.
An airport vehicle sent a radio message to the tower, but communication was interrupted by another radio transmission at 1 minute 3 seconds.
As the aircraft approached Runway 4, the fire truck was cleared to cross the same runway 25 seconds before impact.
12 seconds before impact, the tower instructed a Frontier Airlines flight to hold its position. 9 seconds earlier, the fire truck was ordered to stop. According to Doug Brazy, you can hear the sound of the landing gear hitting the ground.
The recording ended when one pilot handed over control to the other.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy added that the agency does not yet know which air traffic controller was in charge of ground operations at the New York airport at the time.
+Listen to the full audio recording of the Air Canada crash
Source and images: Wikimedia Commons. This content is generated with the help of artificial intelligence and verified by the editorial team.
