Plane Crash At LaGuardia Airport Kills Pilots, Injures 41 Others

The chaos at U.S. airports has extended beyond the TSA checkpoints and into air traffic control towers. Within the last 24 hours, there has been both a plane crash at LaGuardia Airport and flights halted at Newark Airport after a burning smell was reported in one of the air traffic control towers. 

According to CBS News, the plane crash at LaGuardia Airport occurred on Sunday night when an arriving Air Canada flight struck a fire-rescue vehicle that was on the runway. Both the pilot and co-pilot were killed in the crash, and 41 people were hospitalized, according to a statement released by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The plane was slowing down when it collided with the fire-rescue vehicle, and images show the front nose of the plane completely mangled after the crash.

The fire-rescue vehicle was on the runway responding to an incident on United Airlines Flight 2384 after the flight aborted its takeoff after an anti-ice warning light came on. The pilots of the United Airlines flight also reported a strange odor in the cabin and that several of the flight attendants were feeling ill. An emergency was declared when the United Airlines flight had no gate to return to. An air traffic controller authorized the fire-rescue vehicle to assist the flight before telling it to stop. 

An air traffic controller could be heard speaking with a Frontier pilot shortly after the collision. “That wasn’t good to watch,” the Frontier pilot said. “Yeah, I know, I was here,” the air traffic controller responded. “I tried to reach out to my staff, and we were dealing with an emergency earlier, and I messed up.” Flights at LaGuardia Airport were stopped until 2 p.m. on Monday. 

The National Transportation Safety Board said it was “launching a go team” to investigate the crash. Robert Sumwalt, former chair of the NTSB, told CBS Mornings that the investigation will likely take 12 to 18 months to finish. 

There was a separate incident involving air traffic controllers at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday morning. The Hill reports that flights at Newark Airport were temporarily halted after a burning smell was reported from one of the elevators in an air traffic control tower. The tower was evacuated at approximately 7:30 a.m. EST. An FAA spokesperson said there was no fire, and it’s unclear what caused the burning smell. The air traffic controllers were seen returning to the tower around 8:30 a.m. 

As someone who just took a trip this weekend, I cannot tell you how blessed I’m feeling that the plane took off and landed safely, and that the TSA lines were reasonable both going to and from my destination. While Sky Harbor International Airport, the primary airport in my home Phoenix area, was largely operating as normal in the early weeks of the shutdown, lines have increased as more security checkpoints have been closed. 

Between the crash, long TSA lines, ticket prices increasing due to the war in Iran, and now ICE being deployed to airports, it might be a good time to put those travel plans on hold. 

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