Sad day today as a Jazz CRJ had a collision with a firetruck that was crossing their runway as they landed last night. It appears the controller gave the truck permission to cross and then realized what he did, but it was too late. Flight crew were killed (and there is nothing left of that flight deck), a flight attendant was ejected in her seat (survived), firefighters ejected (survived) and several other injuries. Pictures and a timeline at the link below. May the crew rest in peace.
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Here’s a video
I’ve talked to that controller many times. I feel so terribly sorry for him. Yesterday was a challenging day. Runway 4 always is. And even on the best days LGA can be a handful. My heart goes out to him and of course to the families of the crew and those poor traumatized passengers.
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It would be ironic if he was additionally task saturated by having to build in separation between VFR helicopters and terminal IFR arrivals. (Not a theory..just pointing out that sometimes swatting flies with sledgehammers provides a worse solution than what already existed..)..
If it turns out that controller saturation was partially responsible for this accident… I hope it becomes the catalyst… like the operational control Challenger accident.. or the Roselawn ATR accident… that actually results in positive changes for ATC staffing. Those guys and gals are magicians… and I feel terrible for that controller. I could feel it in almost every ATC sector today as I was flying. All of the controllers just sounded absolutely flat… destroyed. I think all of the pilots they were handling today just wanted to reach out and give them a hug.
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It’s a very tragic accident, and he tried to get the fire trucks to stop, but unfortunately they either didn’t hear him or it was just too late.
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Probably the later, a loaded fire apparatus has a lot of weight and takes some distance to stop. I’d be curious to see the accident report as it should have some indication if braking was attempted by the fire unit.
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That line of thinking makes sense, and I’ve no idea how this might relate to the flying side, but I found that most of the Ugly Things happend in those in between times, often coming out of the crazy.
When the dial was cranked up to 100 you HAD to focus, hard. Sure, there’s a limit (I’ve been there), but it’s distractions when you’re ‘coming down’ that seem to cause a lot of ‘gotcha’s’. Not scientific, just an observation.
However, if staffing has gotten worse in the last ~15 years (see above) then, yeah, not good. At all. Irrespoinsible even. But I wasn’t there. The DC one really pizzed me off, from an operational supervisor’s point of view - I ALWAYS watched over my people when it was busy. Always. Sadly, I was a minority. The culture was Not Good back then. Sounds like it may not have improved.
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I read that the controller had to work the aftermath of the accident for an hour, before being relieved of duty. If true… Wow!
But if conditions over there are similar to here in europe, I can believe it.
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