Dramatic audio captured the moments just before and immediately after an arriving airplane at LaGuardia Airport crashed into a fire truck that was responding to a different emergency late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot.
The audio tracks the conversation between air traffic control and the fire truck, which was crossing the runway to reach a United plane that had reported a suspicious odor onboard.
But as the truck entered the runway, an Air Canada plane was landing.
“Truck one, stop there please,” the tower says. “Stop stop stop!”
The tower continued, “Stop truck one! STOP!”
The controller then can be heard calling for the plane to abort the landing, “go around,” to attempt landing again, warning of a “vehicle in position.”
The plane crashed into the truck immediately after.
“JAZZ 646, I see you collided with the vehicle. Just hold position. I know you can’t move,” the controller said. “Vehicles are responding to you now.”
Other voices can be heard minutes later, presumably from other air traffic controllers, after the incident led to the airport closing operations.
“That wasn’t good to watch,” says a second voice.
“Yeah, I know I was here. I tried to reach out ―,” the first person responds. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.”
The second voice replies, “No, man, you did the best you could.”
The Air Canada Express CRJ-900 was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members from Montreal. At least 41 people aboard were hospitalized, nine with “serious injuries.”
By midday Monday, according to data tracked by FlightAware, nearly 600 flights into and out of LaGuardia have been canceled.
