Investigators are probing whether an air traffic controller briefly stepped away to answer an emergency phone call just before the deadly collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport last month.
The late-night crash — which killed both pilots aboard an Air Canada flight on March 22 — is under intense scrutiny, with sources telling The New York Times that one line of inquiry is whether a controller left their post to use a “crash phone,” a dedicated emergency line inside the tower.
The National Transportation Safety Board is piecing together what happened in the final moments before the jet slammed into a fire truck just before midnight, marking the airport’s first fatal accident in more than 30 years.
Investigators are focusing in part on the layout of the control tower at LaGuardia, where emergency phones are not always within arm’s reach of active workstations.
Depending on where it’s placed, a controller may have to leave their console to reach it in a crisis.
No conclusions have been reached and the investigation remains ongoing.
Beyond the tower, the NTSB is retracing the movements of a convoy of six fire trucks, the outlet reported.
The Air Canada jet struck the lead truck as it headed to an emergency on another part of the airfield.
Officials are trying to figure out whether the lead truck blew past a required stop line before entering the runway — and whether its crew missed instructions from air traffic control.
Weather conditions and visibility at the time are also being looked at, the outlet added.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy confirmed that two controllers were on duty in the tower at the time — the standard overnight staffing level at LaGuardia and across the US, she said. A third and fourth controller were reportedly elsewhere in the building at the time.
But staffing at the airport may have strayed from standard procedures, with it suggested that roles could have been combined before midnight.
Controllers say ongoing staffing shortages, including at the supervisor level, are forcing workers to juggle both air and ground traffic duties more often.
If that was the case the night of the crash, it would mark a break from LaGuardia’s usual operating rules.
Another key focus is the airport’s ground radar system, ASDE-X, which is designed to track aircraft and vehicles and warn of potential conflicts.
Homendy previously said the system did not flag the fire truck because it lacked a transponder — equipment that would have made it visible to controllers.
The crash killed pilots Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther. No passengers or firefighters were killed.
The incident has also raised fresh questions about how busy LaGuardia was that night, with some aviation insiders suggesting more staff may have been needed in the tower.
It comes as Air Canada faces its own fallout. CEO Michael Rousseau recently announced plans to step down later this year following backlash over his response to the crash.
Rousseau, who became CEO in 2021, faced a heated reaction after making his video statement almost entirely in English — snubbing Montreal’s official language of French.
With Post wires.
