Air traffic controller who sent fire truck into path of Air Canada plane and killed two stayed working even after LaGuardia smash, NTSB says

The air traffic controller who sent a fire truck into the path of the Air Canada plane at LaGuardia Airport continued to work after the deadly crash, the NTSB revealed.

NTSB boss Jennifer Homendy said that the unidentified controller was ‘still on duty for several minutes’ after plane slammed into the truck Sunday night.

‘Normally they would be relieved,’ Homendy said during a press briefing Tuesday. ‘We have questions about that. Was anybody available to relieve that controller? We don’t know that yet.’

Investigators are working to determine what happened during shift change, who else was in the air traffic control tower and who was available at the time of the crash.

Officials also have questions about what other traffic the controller was dealing with at the time of the crash.

‘We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure,’ Homendy explained. ‘Our aviation system is incredibly safe because there are multiple, multiple layers of defense built in to prevent an accident. So when something goes wrong that means many, many things went wrong.’

The Air Canada plane carrying more than 70 people slammed into the fire truck while landing late Sunday night, killing the two pilots and injuring several passengers. 

Most passengers were able to escape the mangled aircraft, and a flight attendant still strapped in her seat survived after being thrown onto the tarmac.

Federal investigators say a runway warning system didn’t trigger an alarm before the jet and truck collided at the New York City airport. 

Many questions remain about why the airport fire truck was crossing the runway while the plane was landing and why it didn’t stop despite frantic, last-second warnings from the control tower. 

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.