FAA moves to fire LaGuardia controllers who left early before fatal crash

Because the two controllers left work early that night, there were only two people left in the tower to direct an unusual flurry of flights while dealing with an emergency on another plane on the ground.

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At the same time, the controllers had to shuffle their duties because of the emergency response to the odor issue on the United plane.

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The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter due to the ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the March 22 crash and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity Friday.

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The FAA is also in the midst of negotiating a new contract with the air traffic controllers union that the agency hopes will include an agreement on a new scheduling model.

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Tom Lintner saw early departures repeatedly during his decades-long career at the FAA that included a stint as a LaGuardia controller before going on to oversee all air traffic control investigations, but he said it shouldn't be allowed to continue.

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Right away, investigators had questions about staffing in the tower, but they have also identified a number of other factors that likely contributed to the crash.

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Just seconds earlier, a controller had cleared the fire truck to cross the runway, but the truck started moving while warning lights that act as a stop sign for crossing traffic were still lit.

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The NTSB declined to comment on the news about the controllers leaving early.

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After the air traffic controller's initial stop warning, the fire truck's turret operator heard the controller say, "Truck 1, stop, stop, stop," and realized he was telling the truck to halt, the report said.

By then, the truck was already on the runway as Air Canada Express Flight 8646 was landing and speeding toward it.

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The agency expects every organization involved in an investigation to remain silent while experts work to determine what caused the crash and how to prevent similar tragedies in the future.

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The fire truck was leading a convoy of vehicles, including four other fire trucks, a police car and a stair truck, responding to an emergency involving a strong odor that was making flight attendants feel ill aboard a departing United Airlines jet.

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Two air traffic controllers were on duty when the crash happened at 11:37 p.m.

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Air Canada and union officials across the industry did not respond to questions.

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The fire truck was leading a convoy of vehicles, including four other fire trucks, a police car and a stair truck, responding to an emergency involving a strong odor that was making flight attendants feel ill aboard a departing United Airlines jet.

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In addition, 39 people were taken to hospitals, including six described as seriously injured.

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Planes were landing every few minutes, with a dozen flights arriving between 11 p.m. and when the crash happened less than 40 minutes later.

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The two fire truck crew members recovered at home after being released from the hospital.

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The fire truck had been crossing the taxiway to respond to an incident across the airport.

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The plane had 72 passengers and four crew members on board for the one-hour flight from Montreal to New York's LaGuardia, dozens of whom were injured.

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Both NATCA and the FAA are considered parties to the NTSB investigation, which typically muzzles such organizations from commenting publicly on a crash until a final report has been published.

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Only two controllers were working in LaGuardia's control tower that night: the local controller, tasked with managing active runways and airspace surrounding the airport, and the controller-in-charge, responsible for overseeing the safety of all air traffic operations and giving pilots departure clearance, according to the NTSB.

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The plane was going more than 100 mph at the fire truck and surface detection equipment did not generate an alert.

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It's not clear if the fire crew heard the command – or if they misunderstood it.

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Eighteen minutes after the collision, a noticeably distraught air traffic controller spoke with a Frontier Airlines pilot.

"That wasn't good to watch," the pilot said, per an audio recording.

"Yeah, I know," the controller responded. "I tried to reach out to them. We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up."

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Aircraft maintenance workers in a boom lift cut away debris hanging from the wreckage of an Air Canada Express jet on March 24. Yuki Iwamura / AP

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The FAA would not agree to an interview with CBS News New York, but said it's committed to holding employees accountable.

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The crash renewed scrutiny of chronic staffing shortages and working practices in U.S. air traffic control, with investigators examining whether adequate staffing was in place when the accident occurred.

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Managers have at times allowed controllers to cut loose before their shift ends, for example, when they have only a break left.

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The two firefighters inside the fire truck were also injured, but ultimately survived and have been placed on leave.

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A crash-prevention system also didn't generate an audio or visual alert in the control tower, and the runway entrance lights, which act as stoplights for crossing traffic, remained on for roughly three seconds before the truck and jet collided, the report revealed.

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The preliminary report also singled out the fire truck's lack of a transponder but did not say if including the device could've prevented the collision.

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The system is designed to turn the lights off two or three seconds before a plane reaches an intersection.

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Without the device, LaGuardia's automatic warning system could not "correlate the track" of the descending Air Canada Express with the fire truck's path, the report said.

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The resulting collision left two Canadian aviators dead and sent more than 40 people to hospital.

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The controller recognized the danger moments beforehand, instructing the truck to "stop" — 12 times in 10 seconds — but receiving no reply.

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Footage shows the jet speeding along the rain-streaked strip as the truck crosses its path, veering away too late from an impact that unleashed a trail of smoke and debris as the plane skidded more than 100 metres farther, its cockpit obliterated.

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A preliminary report from the US National Transportation Safety Board in April found that system failures and communication issues played a key role in the accident.

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Experts have praised the pilots — Quebecer Antoine Forest and Ontarian MacKenzie Gunther, who flew for Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation — for their quick braking that likely saved lives.

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Experts have praised the pilots — Quebecer Antoine Forest and Ontarian MacKenzie Gunther, who flew for Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation — for their quick braking that likely saved lives.

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Two air traffic controllers left early the night of March 22, NBC News reports — a full hour before their shift ended, as well as an hour before the crash occurred, which left two pilots dead and two members of a Port Authority fire crew badly hurt.

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That left the busy night to just two staffers, one of whom was apparently along in trying to handle the busy ground traffic at the Queens airport.

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Just two minutes after the Air Canada jet had been cleared to land — and 25 seconds before the crash — the fire crew asked to cross the same runway.

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That included handling an emergency call and dispatching a Port Authority fire truck.

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The air traffic control tower may have been understaffed the night an Air Canada flight collided with a fire truck, killing two people and injuring half a dozen others.

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Then, just nine seconds before the crash, the controller frantically told the fire crew: "Stop, stop, stop, stop. Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop, stop."

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Five seconds later, with Flight 8646 approaching the runway a little more than 100 feet above the ground, an air traffic controller cleared the fire truck to cross the runway.

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A second later, the plane's landing gear touched down.

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About 40 people, including the two people in the fire truck, were taken to hospitals.

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