NTSB Investigates Delay in Relieving LaGuardia Controller After Air Canada Crash

‍NEW YORK — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is examining why the air traffic controller involved in the March 22 collision between an Air Canada Express (AC) CRJ-900 and an airport rescue and firefighting (ARFF) truck at New York LaGuardia (LGA) was not removed from position immediately—a point NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy has flagged as a key procedural question in the early investigation.

The accident occurred in the final minutes before midnight. The NTSB timeline reported that the ARFF truck was cleared to cross the runway at 11:37:05 p.m., and the collision followed about 20 seconds later—meaning any claim that the controller remained on position “until the 12:00 a.m. shift change” would imply a window of roughly 23 minutes, not 30. Homendy has said a controller would typically be relieved after an event of this magnitude, and investigators want to understand why that did not occur immediately.

Key findings so far: tracking, transponders, and missed alerts

Beyond staffing and procedure, the NTSB has pointed to multiple technical and operational breakdowns that together set the stage for the runway conflict:

• Surface alert didn’t trigger: LaGuardia’s ASDE-X runway incursion alert system did not warn controllers before the collision. Homendy said the system failed to generate an alert because it could not form a “confident track,” and the responding vehicle did not have a transponder to broadcast its position.
• Vehicle tracking gap: Reuters reported that the airport’s ground surveillance system did not alert the tower to the truck’s proximity to the runway, with the absence of a transponder cited as a major contributing factor.
• Runway status lights were operating: The NTSB confirmed the runway status lights were on, prompting questions about the cues available to the fire crew and what was observed or heard before the impact.

Communications and workload under review

Investigators are also focusing on the human-factors side of the sequence. AP’s timeline shows the tower issued urgent stop instructions as the conflict became apparent, but it remains unclear whether the ARFF crew heard or could comply in time. The Washington Post reported that cockpit voice recorder (CVR) audio indicates overlapping instructions and coordination challenges in the tower during the emergency.

Homendy has cautioned against pinning blame on one person early, emphasizing that runway disasters typically involve multiple layers of failure—from procedures and staffing to technology and equipment standards. There is also the factor of the accident happening at nighttime, which complicates discerning potential conflicting traffic.

What happens next

The NTSB will continue interviews, review duty logs and staffing practices around the midnight shift change, and analyze recorded audio and data to determine why the runway conflict occurred and why safeguards such as ASDE-X alerts and vehicle tracking did not prevent it.

LaGuardia is open but expect delays and/or cancellations.