National Transportation Safety Board officials have released the results of an Air Canada cockpit voice recorder in the fatal collision between the passenger jet and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York.
They said the final three minutes showed that air traffic controllers at New York’s LaGuardia Airport were juggling a developing late-night emergency on the runway just before the jet collided with the vehicle.
A United Airlines flight had twice aborted takeoff and reported an odor coming from the back of the plane. However, no gate was immediately available, so the pilot and controllers negotiated over the radio as controllers tried to reach the airline and find a safe place to put the plane. Audio recordings captured the chaos.
No place to park the aircraft was found, so air traffic control dispatched fire trucks to the plane instead and offered stairs to evacuate passengers, all while managing other traffic.
Moments later, the jet crashed into one of the fire trucks, killing two pilots and injuring dozens.
