Air Traffic Controller Admits He ‘Messed Up’ After Collision At LaGuardia Kills Two Pilots
An air traffic control (ATC) dispatcher was heard on audio saying he “messed up” after a deadly collision between a plane and a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night after touching down.
The crash killed a young pilot and co-pilot, while the two Port Authority employees in the fire truck suffered non-life-threatening injuries and are expected to be released today and tomorrow from the hospital.
Moments before impact, and after a controller had cleared the fire truck to cross the runway, a dispatcher can be heard urgently shouting, “Stop, stop, stop!”
“These were two young men at the start of their career, so it’s an absolute tragedy that we’re sitting here with their loss,” Bryan Bedford, the F.A.A. administrator, said Monday afternoon.
WHAT WE KNOW: The fire truck was crossing the runway to respond to a United Airlines flight that had reported a suspicious "plastic burning smell.” The plane was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal, Canada.
Around 40 passengers and crew members were taken to local hospitals, some with serious injuries. More than 30 have since been released from treatment, authorities said Monday.
WHAT WE HEARD: An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board is now underway. However, air traffic control audio from before and after the crash suggests the air traffic controller may be to blame.
“That wasn’t good to watch," a pilot for Frontier Airlines said after the crash to a controller. “Yeah, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to my staff, and we were dealing with an emergency earlier, and I messed up,” an air traffic controller replied.
AN ALREADY STRAINED SYSTEMFollowing the crash, all flights at LaGuardia were canceled until Monday at 2PM EST. They have since resumed using a single runway so far. LaGuardia’s temporary closure added to massive delays at airports in the New York City-area and across the country due to the five-week long partial government shutdown. Air traffic controllers are being paid during the shutdown, because they are under the Department of Transportation, unlike TSA agents who help with airport security.
There have been more than 600 flight cancellations into or out of LaGuardia on Monday, according to FlightAware.
LaGuardia is one of the top 20 busiest airports in the U.S., handling 16.7 million passengers in 2024.
In a separate incident, Newark Airport — another major NYC airport — also experienced a ground stop on Monday morning after its air traffic control tower was evacuated because of a burning smell coming from an elevator, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Flights resumed about an hour later.
CONTROLLER SHORTAGES: While the ongoing government shutdown has not directly impacted controllers, the system is already under strain due to a significant staffing shortage. However, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said “LaGuardia is a very well-staffed airport,” and that 33 of the 37 air traffic controller positions there are staffed.