The National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday that LaGuardia Airport’s ASDX runway safety system did not generate an alert before Sunday night’s runway collision.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said at the board’s Tuesday press conference that the system “did not generate an alert due to the close proximity of vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway, resulting in the inability to create a track of high confidence.”
Homendy also said Truck 1, the aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle involved in the collision, did not have a transponder.
The board also released preliminary timing from the cockpit voice recorder during the final three minutes of the flight. According to investigator-in-charge Doug Brazy at the Tuesday NTSB press conference, the tower cleared the airplane to land on Runway 4 and later cleared Truck 1 to cross Runway 4 at Taxiway Delta 20 seconds before the end of the recording. Nine seconds before the recording ended, the tower instructed Truck 1 to stop. Brazy said a sound consistent with the airplane’s landing gear touching down was recorded at eight seconds, followed by a transfer of controls from the first officer to the captain at six seconds and a second instruction for Truck 1 to stop at four seconds.
Brazy also said an airport vehicle transmission 1 minute, 3 seconds before the end of the recording was stepped on by another radio call, and investigators have not yet identified the source of the overlapping transmission.
Investigators said the firefighting vehicles were responding to a United Airlines flight at the gate after two aborted takeoffs and a report of fumes, smoke or another odor in the cabin. Homendy said other vehicles were behind Truck 1 but did not begin to cross the runway, and she said investigators were still working to verify staffing records and controller duties in the tower. She also said interviews with controllers began Tuesday afternoon and that the board was reviewing conflicting information in staffing logs, including dates and times.
The TRUCK ONE driver logically thought the initial part of the urgent “stop stop” command was a continuation of an instruction for the FRONTIER taxiing and by the time he realized it was for him and the controller added his ID it was too late.. Out of 1000+ theories I haven’t heard that one yet.
What an fffnnnn failure.
After this news, how many of the 20,000. local fire chiefs will purchase Xpndrs for their ARFF trucks ?
Dear fire chief, don’t waste my tax dollars. In fly-over country, radar won’t see a transponder below 4000’ AGL But if you need to; use-it or loose-it, get mode “C” as well as ADSB-in and out. That way, we can see the trucks altitude. There should be a DOGE law. Stop landing traffic during an emergency. This will be a windfall for the avionics/electronics industry. Just imagine how many snow plows, police cars, tugs, ARFF.. Lets say 50 vehicles per airport at the 520 airports that could use transponders or around $100,000,000. time to buy some stock in Appareo, Avidyne, Becker, Bendix/King, Dynon, Garmin, Sandia, and Trig Avionics.
The blurry video appears to show the fire truck turning left on the runway rather than going straight across to taxiway D. Did the fire truck driver see the jet and attempt to get out of its way?
When I was a CRJ pilot, we looked both ways before crossing an intersection, especially a runway. Any pilot does. I’m guessing it’s SOP for fire trucks too. Shouldn’t have happened.
I assume you have a pilot’s licence, I also assume you don’t go to commercial airports. You don’t seem to grasp the number of incidents the fire fighters/emergency services respond to every day - safely. Your idea of closing the airport would not only create massive rippling delays throughout the network but also costly disruptive diversions.
I notice NTSB repeatedly states truck 1 didn’t have a transponder. They never expand the comment - did NONE of the other vehicles with “1” have a transponder? No one smart enough to think about putting a transponder equipped vehicle in the lead - to avoid an accident!
Another issue - was the ground controller’s call blocked by the fire fighters’ own FM radios?
I have been retired from ATC for a few years, but never knew vehicles on the airport to have a transponder. Is that something that other airport vehicles at LGA (and elsewhere) have now?
The gaggle of fire trucks seen on the video, if all had transponders, would create an unusable clutter of overlapping Data Blocks if they were all equipped, and turned on.