LaGuardia Airport crash: What to know about travel impact, investigation

A Sunday night collision between an Air Canada plane and a firefighting vehicle at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport has left two pilots dead and dozens of people injured, officials said.

Around 11:40 p.m. a Jazz Aviation flight that was functioning on the part of Air Canada was landing at the airport when it hit a Port Authority fire and rescue vehicle, which had been on the runway in response to a different matter.

Preliminary data showed that the flight, which was coming to the airport from Montreal, had 72 passengers plus four crew members, according to a statement from Jazz Aviation.

Gov. Kathy Hochul called the crash "heartbreaking," noting that "Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and everyone affected."

Here’s what to know about the crash and its aftermath:

How will the crash impact overall travel?

After the crash, LaGuardia Airport reopened for passengers at 5:30 a.m. The first flight departed just after 2 p.m., transportation officials said. 

As of about 4:30 p.m. Monday, the Queens airport had roughly 640 cancellations and about 175 total delays, according to FlightAware, an aviation company that tracks flights. 

The deadly crash happened as a number of airports across the country experienced delays as unpaid Transportation Security Agency staff called out during the partial federal government shutdown.

What led to the crash?

The night of the crash, the Port Authority firefighting and rescue vehicle was on the runway after responding to the report of a stench on a United Airlines flight, aviation officials said Monday morning.

Near midnight, the plane struck the vehicle as it landed, killing the two pilots. More than 40 people on the aircraft were taken to a hospital; 32 have been discharged, Port Authority officials said Monday morning.

Port Authority police Sgt. Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez, who were both inside of the fire truck, were hospitalized, Port Authority officials said. One of them is expected to be cleared for hospital discharge on Monday, while the other will stay admitted for overnight observation.

What was the role of air traffic controllers in the crash?

The air traffic controller who permitted that Port Authority vehicle to go onto the runway could have been doing tasks typically completed by two people, according to two aviation experts who spoke to Newsday. Shortly after the collision, an air traffic controller is reported as saying, "I messed up," according to a recording acquired by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Michael McCormick, an air traffic management professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, previously told Newsday that the crash "would have been like hitting a wall."

"Normally, in an operation like this, one controller is working the ground traffic, the vehicles, the taxiing aircraft, [while] another controller is working the arriving and departing aircraft," McCormick, who has taken part in federal government crash investigations, told this publication. 

Staff shortages among air traffic controllers’ ranks have long plagued the Federal Aviation Administration. The National Transportation Safety Board said a "high workload during a period of elevated traffic" was one of several drivers leading to a deadly midair crash involving a military helicopter and a passenger jet at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., last year. Sixty-seven people died in that incident.

What are federal transportation officials saying about the crash?

The NTSB began arriving at the crash scene around 3 a.m., with about 25 specialists expected to be at the site. The U.S. agency said it will be working with the Transportation Safety Board of Canada on the investigation.

NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said in a news conference Monday evening that officials completed a walking inspection, emphasizing there is a tremendous amount of debris in the area and hazardous materials on the vehicle struck by the plane. The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder were retrieved and taken to an NTSB lab in Washington. Officials have confirmed the cockpit voice recorder was not damaged. Work on the flight data recorder will begin Tuesday, officials said.

She said some members of the NTSB team had been slow to get to the scene due to delays in airport security lines caused by the partial government shutdown. She said one team member was in line for 3 hours and the NTSB has to "beg" for him to be ushered through.

Homendy said that the agency has preliminary data, such as on the pilot backgrounds and staffing in the tower, but wants to wait until an expected news conference tomorrow to verify and share that information.

“We have a lot of data right now, a lot of information, including information on tower staffing, but the NTSB deals in facts,” she said. "We don't speculate.”

But she added that an air traffic controller involved in a crash would typically be removed from duty and interviewed, along with others who were in and outside of the tower.

“And certainly it's pretty traumatic for that air traffic controller as well,” she said.

What are the president and other leaders saying about the crash?

Speaking to reporters at Palm Beach International Airport in Florida, President Donald Trump called the crash, "terrible," noting without providing further details, "They made a mistake."

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement posted on social media that he has spoken with Homendy and added that he will "be watching like a hawk to make sure the NTSB and local authorities get to the bottom of this."

"Two pilots lost their lives and dozens of New Yorkers were injured, and we owe it to them and their families to find out exactly how this happened," he said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, who visited the crash site, called the circumstances "incredibly sad" and "troubling." 

“We are working our hearts off to make sure that when people travel — whether by rail, or car, or by air — that they travel safely,” he said at an earlier news conference.

Transportation officials said the airport's aim is to have 37 air traffic controllers. Currently, it has 33 certified controllers with seven in training. 

Still, Duffy called the airport "well-staffed," though he highlighted that the agency needs more Congressional funding to modernize the air control system. 

“I'm not saying that this crash would have been prevented if we had all the equipment deployed, but it's important if we care about air travel safety...” he said.

By Tiffany Cusaac-Smith

tiffany.cusaac-smith@newsday.com@T_Cusaac

Tiffany Cusaac-Smith is a general assignment reporter for Newsday. She previously worked at USA TODAY and is an alum of Howard University.