Former NTSB investigator on LaGuardia crash: Did controller lose ‘situational awareness’?

As investigators probe what contributed to a deadly collision between a jet and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York late Sunday, a former National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator said they are likely to focus on whether an air traffic controller had a lapse in “situational awareness.”

NTSB officials said during a Monday evening news conference that investigators planned to speak with the controller who was in the tower when an Air Canada Express jet attempting to land struck a Port Authority emergency vehicle that was responding to a separate incident.

The crash, which killed the pilot and co-pilot onboard and injured dozens of passengers, has brought renewed attention to the constant juggling happening in air traffic control (ATC) towers, as audio recordings obtained by The Associated Press captured a chaotic scene leading up to the incident.

A United Airlines flight had twice aborted takeoff and reported an odor coming from the back of the plane. But with no gate immediately available, the pilot and controllers went back and forth over the radio as ATC tried to reach the airline and find a safe spot to put the plane. 

With no place to park the aircraft, controllers dispatched fire trucks to go toward the plane instead and offered stairs to evacuate passengers, all while continuing to manage other traffic. Then a frantic warning cut across the radio: “Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop.”

Former NTSB investigator Greg Feith told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo that investigators were likely to home in on that decision-making process.  

 “The question for investigators right now is, how did this air traffic controller clear the fire truck to cross runway four, when he was also responsible for providing clearance for the Air Canada flight to land on runway four?” Feith said during a segment on NewsNation’s “Cuomo.”

“The question will be, did he lose situational awareness?” he continued. “Did he forget that he cleared that airplane to land? Or if he did recognize that the airplane was there, did he think he was able to get at least truck one across the runway before the airplane made it that far down the runway?”

The Federal Aviation Administration defines situational awareness as “the accurate perception and understanding of all the factors and conditions within the five fundamental risk elements (flight, pilot, aircraft, environment, and type of operation that comprise any given aviation situation)” that affect safety before, during and after a flight.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters on Monday that the collision happened during an overnight shift, and investigators were still working to verify how long the controllers had been on and when the shift change occurred that night.

“Typically, they would be removed from duty, and certainly it’s pretty traumatic for that air traffic controller as well,” she added later. “And we’ll want to interview that air traffic controller as well as others that were in the tower or maybe not even in the tower.”

The Associated Press contributed.

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