As the investigation into the collision between a Jazz Aviation plane and an emergency vehicle Sunday evening at New York’s LaGuardia Airport continues Tuesday, a revealing element surfaces: the truck involved was at the head of a convoy and was the only one not to stop.
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Reported by some media, but unnoticed by several others, this element is confirmed by the airport’s internal surveillance video broadcast on several social networks.
In the background we see several emergency vehicles stopped, flashing lights on, while the lead vehicle, whose radio call sign is Truck 1, continues on its way. This element sheds new light on the events which led to the death of the two pilots of flight AC8646. According to the transcript of the exchanges with the control tower, the controller ordered the driver of the lead truck to stop around ten times, without the latter responding. However, the other vehicles had clearly complied.
Conference Tuesday
American aviation experts have arrived in New York to investigate the circumstances of the collision, which occurred Sunday evening when the plane, which was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members, landed and slammed into a fire truck moments later.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the independent agency that will lead the investigation, have already recovered from the wreckage of the Jazz Aviation plane, a Bombardier CRJ-900 operated under the name Air Canada Express, the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.
The NTSB is expected to call a press conference on Tuesday to share information obtained from this data.
The two deceased pilots are Antoine Forest, originally from Coteau-du-Lac, in Montérégie, and Mackenzie Gunther, a graduate of Seneca Polytechnic, in Toronto.
Forty-three people were taken to hospital; 32 were discharged early Monday. Several passengers reported feeling the pilot brake suddenly, throwing many of them into the seat in front of them. A flight attendant was ejected onto the tarmac, strapped to her seat.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will participate in the investigation led by American authorities. The accident highlighted the growing pressures on air traffic controllers in the United States.
With The Canadian Press
