The tragic plane crash involving an Air Canada plane at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night could have been prevented. That according to an aviation specialist, which gives her own theory behind what happened.
A passenger flight turned into a frightening incident on the runway after a plane carrying dozens of travelers suddenly collided with a vehicle before takeoff. Two pilots have been confirmed dead in the tragic incident
The Bombardier CRJ-900 twin-jet, operating as Jazz Aviation Flight 8646 for a Canadian airline, was on its way from Montreal to New York with 76 passengers on board. But before the aircraft could leave the ground, something went terribly wrong.
According to flight tracking data, the plane was moving along Runway 4 at around 24 miles per hour when it struck a Port Authority truck. Aviation specialists says the Air Canada jet had the right of way when the collision happened, meaning the runway should have been completely clear..
Mary Schiavo, a former inspector general of the Department of Transportation, believes the situation points to a major error in communication between air traffic controllers.
“Once that aircraft was cleared to land … it owned that runway,” Schiavo told the NY Post.
Expert reveals ‘critical mistake’ made before Air Canada crash
She explained that early information suggests there may have been confusion between the control tower and ground control at the time of the crash. The accident happened when the plane slammed into a truck on the runway, killing two pilots and injuring dozens of people.
Schiavo said audio recordings indicate that the problem may have started with how the air traffic control duties were handled.
“There are two parts here — there’s the control in the tower, also called local control, and there’s ground control. And those two air traffic control entities are supposed to coordinate with each other,” she continued.
Normally, these two roles must stay in constant contact to make sure the runway stays safe. But in this case, something appears to have gone wrong.
“So clearly they either did not coordinate, or they did and were just wrong. But giving a firetruck clearance to cross the runway after an aircraft has been cleared to run in this final is a clear error. There’s just no way around that,” Schiavo.
Critical mistake may have led to tragedy
The expert believes the most serious question now is who allowed the truck onto the runway while the plane was coming in to land.
Mary Schiavo asked, “Who gave the final clearance for that fire truck across the runway? It should have been the tower, but clearly … someone made a very critical mistake in allowing a fire truck clearance to cross the runway when an aircraft had been given a landing clearance. That’s my take on it.”
Investigators are now working to understand exactly what happened, but early signs suggest the disaster may have been the result of a mistake that should never have occurred.
