I have no idea how people in the truck weren't dead on impact.

Also, not placing blame, but I also don't see how the truck didn't see or notice the plane landing on the runway

Seatbelts... Everyone seated, seat belts on, and helmets OFF.
And the plane probably hit behind the cab area. The back 3/4 of that truck is all water tank, pump (small area), and tool/equipment storage.

Is ATC understaffed to the point of forcing this guy to do ground and tower control simultaneously?

Audio from Air Traffic Control when plane collided with fire truck at New York airport:

"Stop Truck 1, stop!"

"We were dealing with an emergency earlier and I messed up" pic.twitter.com/7dJcFov4gq

— BNO News (@BNONews) March 23, 2026

Quote:

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I have no idea how people in the truck weren't dead on impact.

Also, not placing blame, but I also don't see how the truck didn't see or notice the plane landing on the runway

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They were entering from a high speed taxiway at an angle smaller than 90 degrees, so they had to be looking behind them to some degree.

There was still a lot of speed left to bleed off. Remember, the fuselage is just a tube of aluminum. the mass is in the engines and wings (when fueled). And still, it obliterated that fire truck.

Colonel Kurtz said:

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Is ATC understaffed to the point of forcing this guy to do ground and tower control simultaneously?

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Working extended hours with high stress where you have lives in your hands isn't for everyone, especially when every now and then Congress expects you to do it for free.

Colonel Kurtz said:

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Is ATC understaffed to the point of forcing this guy to do ground and tower control simultaneously?

Audio from Air Traffic Control when plane collided with fire truck at New York airport:

"Stop Truck 1, stop!"

"We were dealing with an emergency earlier and I messed up" pic.twitter.com/7dJcFov4gq

— BNO News (@BNONews) March 23, 2026

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Unfortunately it's common for one controller to run tower and ground (and clearance) simultaneously, even at busy airports with crossing runways in use (like LGA and HOU among others)

Pulled up a map of LGA...
Assuming (that's all I've got right now) the CRJ landed dead center on the touchdown zone at ~140kts (Google says that's an avg touchdown speed), it's 1,600ft to the Taxiway Delta crossing.

140 kts = 160 mph --> 235 ft per second
if they slowed to 90 kts at impact that's STILL 100 mph --> 147 ft per second

That's about 8 seconds from main gear on the pavement to impact

Not sure if this is AI or not, but thought I'd share.

Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

How were there only 2 fatalities? Would have thought more based on that pic

Rapier108 said:

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Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

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Goodness! I was wondering how the FA's survived on page 1 just counting windows. The galley area was destroyed!!!

There isn't much to the jump seats that those FA's sit on to "still be strapped to." It's a flip down seat and essentially the wall/bulkhead to the flight deck.

I thought "taxiing" how fast could they have been going? Well, that video above shows they were hauling. Looked like they were taking off.

Looks like truck saw and attempted to turn away. Thank God didn't avert into the wing.

Gives an idea of the difference between a thin aluminum airframe and a fire truck. Plane crashes cause relatively small damage to what they hit, especially when they're not at flight speeds.

And yes, a miracle that more people on the plane aren't fatalities. Wonder if the pilots or driver managed to do anything last-second to reduce the severity of the accident?

Philip J Fry said:

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How were there only 2 fatalities? Would have thought more based on that pic

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the damage was by some miracle aft of the bulkhead between the forward pax area and the forward galley.

beanbean said:

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I thought "taxiing" how fast could they have been going? Well, that video above shows they were hauling. Looked like they were taking off.

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It had just touched down.

No way to stop that quickly, but better to hit the truck head on. If the aircraft had managed to turn a bit, the truck likely would have hit the wing and then there would have been a big kaboom.

Rapier108 said:

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Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

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Alive???

Ex Ex Officio Director said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

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Alive???

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That's what I heard on my way to work this morning

Ex Ex Officio Director said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

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Alive???

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As of right now, the only two fatalities are the pilots.

Rapier108 said:

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Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

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Wow that would likely be the lead FA, leaving a junior FA in charge of the aircraft and emergency evacuation.

JFABNRGR said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

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Wow that would likely be the lead FA, leaving a junior FA in charge of the aircraft and emergency evacuation.

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From the reports I read, emergency crews had to open the doors from the outside...the junior FA may not have been able to lead anything after the crash

Did the pilots intentionally not deviate when they saw the truck? Wondering if they had the wherewithal to keep a steady heading. Incredibly brave/heroic if so.

Wonder what the cockpit voice recorder will reveal as to when the pilots perceived the danger until impact. Doubt it was much more than a few seconds given poor visibility.

Further, no idea about that particular carrier but The Hubs has always sad that Southwest pilots tended to come in hot and not slow down that much even when taxiing given their strict time schedules.

The Hubs said he would usually drive at about 15 MPH while on the AOA unless instructed there was a higher level emergency to which they were responding. Either way, they always had full lights going.

I've just been skimming posts, but has anyone noted that there was heavy rainfall at the time of the crash?

The article on the Daily Mail said it was raining heavily (not that that has any bearing on the accident).

infinity ag said:

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I hope they don't get the bright idea of "let's replace all ATCs with AI!" and fire everyone even before the tech has been proven to work 100% (not 99%). But knowing how things work, I won't be surprised if they do it to grab headlines, cut costs and make bonus targets.

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Self-flying aircraft could be the next step from self-driving cars.

Not blaming anyone in specific, but I certainly would want to know if the Air traffic controller was qualified for that job, sure seems there are plenty of people in that field that maybe shouldn't be per general media reports. Who instructs a huge fire truck to go across a live runway? anyway, Im sure the entire story will come out and we will all know these answers so just going to have to sit back and wait see what happened and why

Ex Ex Officio Director said:

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I've just been skimming posts, but has anyone noted that there was heavy rainfall at the time of the crash?

The article on the Daily Mail said it was raining heavily (not that that has any bearing on the accident).

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You can see on the videos that the tarmac is wet and I would assume that played a little into the truck not seeing the plane (at least until it was too late to do anything about it). With a wet tarmac at night, you are seeing 2 of every light source.

lunchbox said:

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JFABNRGR said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

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Wow that would likely be the lead FA, leaving a junior FA in charge of the aircraft and emergency evacuation.

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From the reports I read, emergency crews had to open the doors from the outside...the junior FA may not have been able to lead anything after the crash

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Where have all the men gone!

Will be interesting to see the vids come out on who took charge if anyone or was it just pure chaos on board.

JFABNRGR said:

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lunchbox said:

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JFABNRGR said:

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Rapier108 said:

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Looks legit.

The flight attendant sitting behind the cockpit was found on the tarmac, still strapped to her seat.

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Wow that would likely be the lead FA, leaving a junior FA in charge of the aircraft and emergency evacuation.

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From the reports I read, emergency crews had to open the doors from the outside...the junior FA may not have been able to lead anything after the crash

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Where have all the men gone!

Will be interesting to see the vids come out on who took charge if anyone or was it just pure chaos on board.

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There were a lot of injuries. Very possible between that and shock, no one was able to open the doors before emergency services arrived.

NTSB investigators walk the scene of the Mar. 22 collision between an Air Canada Express plane and a firefighting vehicle on Runway 4 at LaGuardia Airport. pic.twitter.com/lLuC5YCAzv

— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) March 23, 2026