An audio recording recovered from the Air Canada Express passenger jet that collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York Sunday night has revealed the mistakes made leading up to the fatal crash.
The two pilots on the Jazz Aviation Flight 8646 from Montreal, Captain Antoine Forest and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther, were killed when their plane smashed into the Port Authority truck, which was crossing Runway 4 in response to an emergency issue reported on another aircraft.
Forty-one people on board were injured and taken to hospital, most of whom have since been released, as were the two occupants of the vehicle, who were treated for broken limbs and are understood to be in a stable condition.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board recovered the cockpit recording by cutting a hole into the roof of the mangled Bombardier CRJ-900 Monday, enabling NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy to lay out a detailed timeline of precisely what happened Tuesday.
Homendy’s team said one controller in LaGuardia’s air traffic control tower had granted permission for the vehicle to cross the runway while another had cleared the Canadian flight to land on the same tarmac.
Instructions relayed to the vehicle to “stop, stop, stop” – heard on real-time audio from the tower previously-released by LiveATC.com – went unacknowledged, leading to the deadly collision at approximately 11.40 p.m.
Officials said it was common practise to have two controllers working the night shift and said LaGuardia has a surveillance system in place to track the movement of planes and vehicles across its site.
However, the truck involved was not equipped with a transponder that would have triggered an alert, potentially contributing to the tragedy.
Homedy said the controllers involved were working a 10.30 p.m to 6.30 a.m. shift on which staff have previously reported feeling fatigue, although he added there was “no indication that was a factor here.”
She explained that the cockpit contained 25 hours of audio, which would be fully transcribed Wednesday, but said its final moments reveal the incoming plane liaising with the control tower, securing permission to use the runway, and clearing its landing checklist.
A radio transmission from the truck was lost at this moment, according to Homedy, because another unidentified user was communicating on the same frequency.
“That would be significant because it could mean somebody might not hear the other part of the communication,” Homendy said.
The truck was duly granted permission to cross Runway 4 with the plane just feet from the ground, leading to the frantic calls for it to stop once the error had been realised – to no avail.
“I tried to reach out to ’em… We were dealing with an emergency earlier, and I messed up,” the controller said on the LiveATC audio.
“Nah, man, you did the best you could,” a pilot responded.
Here’s a timeline of precisely how the disaster unfolded:
10.12 p.m.: Air Canada Express Flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, leaves Montreal–Trudeau International Airport, two hours and 13 minutes late. By the time the aircraft reaches New York, it is part of an influx of late-arriving flights, including some waiting extended periods for a gate.
11.16:42 p.m.: A United aircraft, Flight 2384, aborts takeoff for a second time because of an anti-ice warning light in the cockpit.
11.20:48 p.m.: “We have an odor on the plane as well here at this time,” the United pilot reports. “We are going to be going back to the gate, request fire as well,” using shorthand for the airport’s fire rescue team.
11.21:12 p.m.: Another pilot chimes in: “If that’s a sewer smell… we smelled that too going around the terminal there.”
11.22:24 p.m.: A controller asks the United pilot if it is a smoke odor. He responds: “No, it was a weird odor. I don’t know exactly how to describe it.” He says he cannot get hold of anyone to obtain a gate assignment.
11.24:49 p.m.: The controller confirms there is no gate available. He asks the pilot: “Do you still need us to send fire there?” The pilot says yes, citing the odor.
11.27:44 p.m.: United 2384’s pilot tells the controller he does not plan on evacuating the plane. The controller instructs the pilot to move to another taxiway.
11.29:54 p.m.: United 2384 makes a wrong turn and ends up on a different part of the taxiway but the controller does not sound concerned. “You can just stay over there… and we’ll have the guys go over there,” he says.
11.31:41 p.m.: United 2384 declares an emergency. The pilot says: “The flight attendants in the back are feeling ill because of the odor. We will need to go into any available gate at this time.”
11.31:59 p.m.: The controller asks again if there is an available gate, telling the person he is speaking with: “Now they’re declaring an emergency. They want to get out.”
11.33:39 p.m.: The controller tells United 2384 there is still no open gate but fire trucks are headed over with a stair truck if they want to evacuate. “Let me know if you do,” he says.
11.34:18 p.m.: In a routine step near the end of a flight, the air traffic controller handling approaches into LaGuardia instructs the pilots of Air Canada Express Flight 8646 pilots to contact the airport’s control tower, which will guide them the rest of the way.
11.35:08 p.m.: Flight 8646 is cleared to land on Runway 4/22.
11.36:45 p.m.: At the airport, a controller asks: “Is there a vehicle that needed to cross the runway?”
11.37 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company, LaGuardia Tower, requesting to cross 4 at Delta,” the firefighter says, meaning he is requesting clearance to use Taxiway D to cross Runway 4 – the same runway where Flight 8646 is about to land.
11.37:05 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company cross 4 at Delta,” the controller says, authorizing the truck and other emergency vehicles to cross Runway 4. Simultaneously, on a different frequency, the pilot on the odor-stricken United flight reports that his plane has finally been cleared to go to a gate.
11.37:08 p.m.: “Truck 1 and company crossing 4 at Delta,” a firefighter in Truck 1 repeats, confirming that the controller has cleared the vehicle to cross.
11.37:11 p.m.: An electronic call out in Flight 8646’s cockpit indicates the plane is 50 feet above the ground.
11.37:12 p.m.: A controller tells the pilot of an outbound Frontier Airlines flight to stop on a taxiway.
11.37:15 p.m.: “Sorry, Truck 1,” a controller says as Flight 8646 bears down on Runway 4/22.
11.37:16 p.m.: A controller then frantically tells the fire crew: “Stop. Stop Stop. Stop. Truck 1. Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop.”
11.37:17 p.m.: Flight 8646’s cockpit voice recorder captures a sound that investigators say is consistent with the plane’s landing gear touching down.
11.37:19 p.m.: Flight 8646’s first officer, who was flying the plane, transfers control to the captain.
11.37:20 p.m.: The controller continues: “Stop Truck 1. Stop. Stop Truck 1. Stop.” As he speaks, an alarm begins to beep.
11.37:25 p.m.: Flight 8646 slams into the fire truck. The cockpit voice recording stops.
11.37:45 p.m.: A controller tells the pilot of the next plane set to land to “go around,” meaning he should keep flying instead of landing. The controller then tries to raise the pilots of Flight 8646. “I see you collided with a vehicle there. Just hold position. I know you can’t move. Vehicles are responding to you now.” Other rescue vehicles race to the crash site.
11.55:37 p.m.: The pilot of another plane tells a controller: “That wasn’t good to watch.” The controller responds: “Yeah, I know. I was here… We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.”
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