NTSB Says LaGuardia Tower Staffing Normal, But Concerns Remain

There were two air traffic controllers (ATCs) in the tower monitoring LaGuardia Airport (KLGA) at the time of Sunday evening’s fatal collision, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday, a figure considered standard for the night shift at the airport and in much of the nation’s airspace.

Nonetheless, questions remain about the total number of employees present at the ATC facility at the time of the accident and the roles played by tower controllers.

Around 11:40 p.m. EDT, a controller cleared a fire truck to cross Runway 4 at LaGuardia. A few seconds later, the vehicle was struck by an Air Canada flight from Montreal.

“It is not clear who was serving as the ground controller,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters at a news conference at the airport. “We have conflicting information. We have information saying it was the controller in charge, we have information saying it was the local controller.”

Homendy noted that while staffing levels that night were normal, investigators have already seen problems on the midnight shift.

“The night shift, as a reminder, is something that we have repeatedly raised concerns about at the NTSB regarding fatigue,” she said. “Again, I don’t know. We don’t have any indication that that’s a factor here, but it’s a change that we’ve focused on in previous investigations.”

The NTSB released several other new details about the chain of events leading to the crash, which killed two Air Canada pilots and injured dozens of others.

Perhaps most notable is that LaGuardia’s ASDX trail safety system did not issue an alert.

“ASDX did not generate an alert due to the proximity of vehicles merging and disappearing near the track, resulting in the inability to create a high-confidence track,” Homendy read in an analysis of the system’s performance.

Authorities also revealed that the fire truck was not equipped with a transponder.

The vehicle was heading to a United Airlines flight that experienced two aborted takeoffs and was reporting fumes in the cabin.

In response to media reports about “distractions” among LaGuardia controllers, Homendy said ATCs shoulder many responsibilities and perform admirably, even in very difficult circumstances.

“I would caution pointing the finger at controllers and saying that implies distraction,” she said.

The president also noted that the country’s air transportation system is complex, with many built-in safeguards, making it very unlikely that a single mistake could trigger an accident.

“When something goes wrong, it means a lot of things have gone wrong,” she said.