A critical runway warning system failed to trigger an alarm before a fatal collision between an Air Canada regional jet and a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, because the truck lacked a key device, federal investigators said on March 24.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the crash that occurred late Sunday evening. The plane’s two pilots were killed, and roughly 40 people were injured and sent to hospitals, including two from the fire truck.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters during a news conference Tuesday that the airport’s safety-critical surface radar detection system, known as ASDE-X, did not issue a safety alert to air traffic control because the fire truck lacked a transponder that transmits the vehicle’s location.
ASDE-X is a multi-layered surveillance system that uses radar, sensor input, and satellites to allow air traffic controllers to track the movement of aircraft and vehicles on the ground.
Using data from multiple sensor inputs, the system can track both transponder-equipped and non-transponder-equipped vehicles on the tarmac.
However, due to the “close proximity of vehicles merging and unmerging near the runway” in the moments before the fatal collision, the runway warning system was unable to “create a track of high confidence” to issue an alert to air traffic control, Homendy said.