The National Transportation Safety Board has released new details in the deadly crash involving a passenger plane and a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
The NTSB said a firefighter on the fire truck heard the warning to stop but did not know to whom it was directed, The Associated Press reported.
The firefighter told investigators he heard “stop, stop, stop” from an air traffic controller at the time, the NTSB said.
The agency said in its preliminary report that a crash-prevention system for controllers did not generate either an audio or a visual alert at the time. The lights that functioned as a stoplight for crossing traffic were on until about three seconds before the crash, the AP reported.
After the initial warning to stop, the fire truck’s turret operator then heard the controller say “Truck 1, stop, stop, stop,” and realized the warning was for them, but the truck was already on the runway and Air Canada Express Flight 8646 was landing and heading towards the truck, the AP reported.
Two pilots on board the flight were killed in the collision on March 22. Several others were hurt, including a flight attendant who was thrown from the plane and landed several feet from the aircraft, still strapped in her seat, the AP reported last month.
The fire truck was crossing the tarmac en route to check on a separate plane that had reported an issue.
The controller was heard saying “I messed up,” about 20 minutes after the incident.
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