What to Know
The Port Authority fire truck that got into a fatal crash with an Air Canada jet landing at LaGuardia Airport didn't have transponders installed that could have helped air traffic controllers better track its movements, NTSB investigators said Tuesday.
While radio transmissions made it clear the Port Authority Police aircraft rescue fire truck and several other emergency vehicles were close to the runway, transponders would have allowed controllers in the tower to see them on their instruments, National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said.
"The controllers should have all the tools they need to do their job," she said at a press briefing at LaGuardia Airport Tuesday afternoon. "Whether it's aircraft or vehicles moving in the taxiways, they should have it all."
The NTSB will be investigating all facets of the crash, including the possibility that a tower operator gave the emergency vehicle permission to cross the runway without realizing the Air Canada plane was landing there.
"We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure," Homendy said. "Our aviation system is incredibly safe because there are multiple, multiple layers of defense built in to prevent an accident."
"When something goes wrong, that means many, many things went wrong," she added.
NTSB investigators have yet to interview the Port Authority Police sergeant and officer who were in the fire truck involved in the crash. The sergeant was expected to be released from the hospital Tuesday, and the officer was released the day before.
"It happened very quickly," Homendy said of the crash. "We need to match up all the times. We need to look at visibility and look at the movement of the trucks and the visibility of the trucks."
She said a transponder aboard the fire truck would have ensured it was visible to LaGuardia's airport surface detection system, known as "ASDE-X," which is meant to automatically notify controllers to potential dangers on the tarmac.
"ASDE-X did not alert," Homendy said.
A replay of data from the ASDE-X system — which relied on ground radar in the absence of a transponder — showed no vehicles crossing the runway at the time of the fatal crash.
"This is an active NTSB investigation, and as with any ongoing investigation, we're not able to comment on specifics," a Port Authority spokesman said in a statement. "Our focus is on ensuring investigators have full access and support as they carry out a thorough and independent review."
Homendy told reporters Tuesday there was no indication any of the fire rescue trucks at LaGuardia Airport were equipped with transponders.
A Port Authority source said its emergency vehicles have never had transponders nor are they required to. "But I'm sure they will be now," the source added.
Air traffic control audio reviewed by the Daily News indicate controllers were nonetheless aware of the truck's position — on Taxiway D preparing to cross Runway 4 — in the seconds leading up to the fatal crash.
After clearing Truck 1 — and an unspecified number of additional rescue trucks — to "cross (Runway) 4 at (taxiway) delta," a controller in the tower immediately tried to rescind the permission.
"Stop, stop, stop!" the controller said seconds later. "Truck 1, stop!"
The crash unfolded around 11:45 p.m. Sunday when the Air Canada jet arriving from Montreal slammed into the Port Authority fire truck racing across the runway to respond to a strange odor on a different plane.
The impact sheared off the front of the jet, killing the two pilots and injuring dozens of passengers.
The dramatic seconds before and after the crash were captured on audio, with an air traffic controller saying he "messed up" by failing to prevent the collision.
Homendy said Tuesday that there were at least two controllers in the tower at the time of the crash, each handling multiple roles — a situation she characterized as "in the standard operating procedure" for LaGuardia and other airports nationwide during the midnight shift.
"It is not clear who was conducting the duties of the ground controller," Homendy said, noting that investigators would be interviewing the controllers Tuesday afternoon.
Passengers of the Air Canada jet praised the two pilots killed in the crash, saying their quick reflexes likely prevented further deaths.
Pilot Antoine Forest and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther were the only people to die in the blistering crash.
Following the direction of the Port Authority Police Department, the NYPD's ESU team assisted in rendering help to the wounded and preparing them for transport to area hospitals, NYPD officials said.
The Port Authority and the National Transportation Safety Board recovered the plane's black box from the wreckage on Monday.
Authorities recovered the plane's recorders by cutting a hole in the aircraft's roof, Homendy said. After the crash, the plane was resting on its rear wings and the front of the plane was several feet in the air.
The recorders were driven to the NTSB lab in Washington for further analysis Monday, she said.
LaGuardia Airport was shut down for hours after the crash, with more than 600 flights canceled.
The airport was reopened on Monday afternoon but Runway 4, where the crash occurred, will remain closed for the foreseeable future, Homendy said.
"There's a tremendous amount of debris," Homendy said during a preliminary briefing on Monday.
Forty-one people — passengers, crew members and the two Port Authority police officers in the firetruck — were taken to area hospitals, with 32 treated for minor injuries and released and the other nine more seriously hurt, authorities said.
As of noon Tuesday, more than 270 flights in and out of the New York City airport have been canceled and another 264 have been delayed. There were 640 cancellations on Monday, according to flight-tracking data website Flightaware.
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Thomas Tracy and Evan Simko-Bednarski; New York Daily News; (TNS) || ©2026 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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