A preliminary federal report found that a key airport safety system failed to warn controllers before the deadly March collision at LaGuardia Airport because the firetruck involved did not have the equipment required for the system to properly track it.
The findings come from the National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the crash involving an Air Canada Express aircraft and an airport firetruck.
Two pilots were killed, and dozens of others were injured.
According to the report, the firetruck was not equipped with a transponder.
That matters because LaGuardia’s ASDE-X surface radar safety system depends on transponders to uniquely identify vehicles and track their exact movements on the airfield.
Without that equipment, investigators said the system could not reliably determine the truck’s position or predict a conflict with the landing aircraft.
In plain terms, one of the airport’s main anti-collision tools was effectively blind to the truck.
The report states that Truck 1 was one of seven responding emergency vehicles that lacked transponders.
They had been dispatched after a United Airlines flight reported a strange odor.
At the time, two air traffic controllers were working the night shift.
Investigators said the local controller cleared the Air Canada flight to land roughly 20 seconds before the emergency vehicles departed the fire station.
Truck 1 then requested permission to cross the runway and was granted clearance.
At that moment, the Air Canada aircraft was reportedly only 130 feet above the runway.
About 20 seconds before impact, the controller began urgently instructing the truck to stop.
A crew member later told investigators he heard repeated commands to “stop” but did not realize they were directed at his vehicle until it entered the runway.
He then saw the airplane lights approaching.
The report also found possible issues with runway entrance warning lights.
Those red lights are meant to remain illuminated when a runway is occupied or unsafe to cross.
Investigators said the lights were on as the aircraft approached, but went dark about three seconds before the collision, around the time the truck reached the edge of the runway, per the Daily Mail.
That timing could have removed a final visual warning.
The two pilots killed were identified as MacKenzie Gunther, 30, and Antoine Forest, 24.
Officials described them as capable young aviators early in their careers.
Forty others were hospitalized, including a flight attendant who reportedly survived after being thrown hundreds of feet while still strapped into her seat.
