Plane crashes with truck on landing at LaGuardia
Very disturbing – so far it appears that air controller error may be the most likely cause. Both pilots have died because it was a frontal high-speed collision. However, the officers in the truck and all the passengers survived, although there were many injuries:
The fatal plane crash at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night was entirely avoidable and likely caused by a miscommunication — but either way, the Air Canada jet had the right of way, experts said Monday.
“Once that aircraft was cleared to land … it owned that runway,” said Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, to The Post.
There appeared to be clear confusion between the control tower and ground control when the plane smashed into the truck, killing two pilots and injuring dozens, she noted.
It could have been worse, according to this:
It was “just pure luck” that the LaGuardia plane crash didn’t involve more fatalities — with the jet miraculously hitting the fire truck at an angle that avoided fuel supplies, an aviation-safety analyst said Monday.
Former FAA safety inspector David Soucie told CNN that the spot on the truck where the Air Canada passenger plane struck it minimized the destruction, which led to two pilots being killed and scores of passengers, crew and two cops wounded.
It was nighttime when the crash occurred. A flight attendant was ejected, strapped to her seat, but survived.
RIP to the pilots.
How awful. I feel for everyone involved, but especially for the controller. While it looks like maybe he/she made a terrible mistake, it is the worst possible thing to happen to a controller. Even if they didn’t make a mistake, they can’t help thinking, if only I’d done things differently.
Nighttime really adds to the confusion too.
I watch many of these air disaster post mortem documentaries. I recall an air controller in perhaps Switzerland, or vicinity, who was the only one on duty late at night. Somehow two planes at altitude were on a collision course at night. All three parties had a couple minutes warning that a collision was imminent and both planes had TCAS.
The TCAS always makes a swift recommendation as whether to pull up and ascend or to descend. One pilot saw the automated guidance and acted on it. The other pilot listened to the air controller who made the wrong decision and the planes collided. The controller should have instructed them to follow their TCAS guidance.
I don’t know the protocols, but a lot of people who do are saying that it is absolutely the truck driver’s responsibility, regardless of clearance by ATC, to stop before entering an active runway and make sure it is safe to cross. That sounds right to me. No doubt the darkness, rain, and background lights might have made it difficult to see the plane coming (similar to what happened at Reagan National with the helicopter), but that’s an explanation, not an excuse.
One YouTube commentator, “Captain Steve”, made the observation that instructions between ATC and pilots are highly formalized as to terminology and subsequent procedures to be observed, whereas comms between Ground Control and vehicles are much less formal. I cannot comment on the validity of this observation, although he did make the point that the truck driver seems to have stopped and received clearance to cross the runway.
A disturbing possibility that occurs to me is that by the time the conflict was recognized, the command “Truck 1 stop, stop, stop!” may have actually halted the truck on the runway instead of allowing it to clear it.
In 1978, this was the root cause of a multi-fatality accident at Cranbrook, British Columbia. A snowplow was told by a remote ATC controller to “clear the runway”. The controller meant “get off the runway” as a plane was landing. Unfortunately the non-pilot snowplow driver took the command as instruction to continue plowing!
The landing 737-200 attempted to takeoff again after seeing the plow after touching down, and after deploying the thrust reversers. The thrust reversers on this model were not designed to be redeployed this way immediately after use, and one set opened in the air despite the crew’s efforts, crashing the plane and killing all on board.
Aircraft landing lights are BRIGHT, and they’d be moving against the background lights. An if you’re at the runway crossing point, you’d be looking almost straight into the beams. Maybe an extra ten seconds to squint right and left?
The aviation app called Foreflight, popular in the general aviation world (including bizjet pilots) and I believe also used by some airline pilots, has a couple of features that might serve as the basis for a system to avoid such tragedies in the future. One feature notifies a pilot on approach that there is another aircraft on the runway, another feature notifies a pilot of the ground that there is an aircraft on short final to the runway he is on. The first feature requires ADS-B IN in the aircraft on approach: apparently most airliners don’t have ADS-B IN although they are rquired to have ADS-B OUT. (With ADS-B, participating aircraft transmit their positions electronicly once per second) There is a proposal before Congress to require ADS-B IN for airliners, in reaction to last year’s collision at Washington Reagan.
Ground vehicles could also be equipped with ADS-B OUT and IN, the display would have to be simplified but could inform the operator if there was traffic on final to the runway he is on OR is about to cross.
TommyJay:
What is TCAS?
TCAS = Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System
Alerts planes to other traffic on collision course, and may also advise maneuver actions for each involved plane to take.
This is all on Secretary Pete. He had a DEI program for training air traffic controllers and not enough got through the system so there is a major shortage. And, of course, the entire air traffic control system is antiquated and apparently hasn’t been upgraded since the 60s and 70s.
Trump and Duffy are fixing this, but the blame is squarely on Pete.
Well DEI for ATCs was more important than safety, two pilots had to DIE.
For the greater good. (sarc x 11)