Fire truck in deadly LaGuardia crash lacked equipment needed to trigger warning system, NTSB says
Posted March 24, 2026 1:33 am.
Last Updated March 24, 2026 4:00 pm.
U.S. federal officials say a runway warning system didn’t sound an alarm before an Air Canada jet and a fire truck collided at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
The head of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, said Tuesday that the system didn’t work as intended because the fire truck did not have a transponder.
The plane carrying more than 70 people slammed into the fire truck while landing late Sunday night, killing the two pilots and injuring several passengers. Most, though, were able to escape the mangled aircraft, and a flight attendant still strapped in her seat survived after being thrown onto the tarmac.
Many questions remain about why the airport fire truck was crossing the runway while the plane was landing and why it didn’t stop despite frantic, last-second warnings from the control tower.
Investigators recovered the plane’s cockpit and flight data recorders by cutting a hole in the aircraft’s roof and then sent them to a lab in Washington for analysis, Homendy said Monday.
On Tuesday, Homendy said NTSB investigators have not yet had a chance to review data from the flight data recorder, but that she has seen surveillance video and still needs to interview the firefighters in the truck to find out whether they braked or turned to avoid a collision.
Investigators also want to know more about the role of the air traffic controllers and whether they were distracted while juggling a late night emergency with another plane.
While flights resumed Monday at LaGuardia — the New York region’s third busiest airport — the runway where the collision happened was still closed.
The wreckage from the crash remained on the closed runway, which is likely to stay shut down for days during the investigation, according to Homendy.
Investigators need to sift through a lot of debris, she said.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the collision. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will also take part in the U.S.-led investigation.
The pilots have been identified as Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther. While Forest lived in Coteau-du-Lac, Que., southwest of Montreal, Toronto college Seneca Polytechnic says Gunther graduated from its Honours Bachelor of Aviation Technology program in 2023.
The crash came at a time of increasing frustration with air travel in the U.S., caused by long security lines because of the government shutdown, winter storms and rising costs.
