NTSB flags ‘conflicting information’ in LaGuardia tower, unclear who handled ground-control duties
Federal investigators say they have uncovered "conflicting information" in LaGuardia Airport control tower logs and still do not know who was handling ground-control duties in the moments before a deadly runway collision late Sunday, March 22.
During a briefing Tuesday, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chair Jennifer Homendy said investigators are working to resolve inconsistencies in tower records, including discrepancies in dates and times.
"We do have logs, but there’s also conflicting information, including dates and times on the logs," Homendy said.
Investigators said it remains unclear who was performing the ground controller role—responsible for managing aircraft and vehicle movement on taxiways—with conflicting accounts pointing to either the controller in charge or the local controller.
The uncertainty is central to the investigation after an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 struck a Port Authority firefighting vehicle on Runway 4 after the tower cleared the truck to cross.
According to a preliminary cockpit voice recorder summary, the sequence unfolded in seconds. The fire truck requested permission to cross Runway 4 about 25 seconds before the recording ended, and the tower cleared "truck one and company" to proceed at 20 seconds.
The truck read back the clearance, but with 9 seconds remaining, the tower ordered it to stop.
"Stop, Truck 1. Stop," the transmission said. "Frontier 4195, stop there please. "Stop, stop, stop, stop. Truck 1, stop, stop, stop. Stop truck one. Stop!"
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At 8 seconds, investigators heard a sound consistent with the aircraft’s landing gear touching down. Six seconds before the end, control shifted from the first officer to the captain. The tower again instructed the truck to stop at 4 seconds. The recording ended seconds later.
Investigators said the lead firefighting vehicle did not have a transponder, limiting the information available to controllers and airport surface detection systems.
According to the NTSB, an analysis of the airport’s surface monitoring system also found it did not generate an alert as the aircraft and vehicle converged.
"ASDE-X did not generate an alert due to the close proximity of vehicles merging near the runway, resulting in the inability to create a track of high confidence," Homendy said.
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Investigators said two controllers were in the tower cab at the time, a local controller and a controller in charge, with roles possibly combined as part of standard overnight operations.
Homendy said that setup is common during midnight shifts across the national airspace system, though she noted the NTSB has previously raised concerns about fatigue during those hours.
She cautioned against assigning blame too early, saying investigators still have "a lot of questions."
"We rarely, if ever, investigate a major accident where it was one failure," Homendy said.
The aircraft was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members when it collided with the Port Authority vehicle around 11:45 p.m. Sunday while landing at LaGuardia Airport. Both pilots were killed and dozens were injured.
Investigators have recovered the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder and are continuing to analyze tower operations, technical systems and controller actions.
Homendy said interviews with controllers were set to begin Tuesday afternoon.
Fox News Digital's Julia Bonavita, Stephen Sorace and Greg Wehner contributed to this reporting.