Firefighters Didn’t Initially Realize Controller’s Call To Stop Was for Them

An NTSB Preliminary Report says one of the airport firefighters aboard a truck that collided with an Air Canada Express CRJ 900 at La Guardia in March heard a controller’s panicked cries to “stop, stop, stop” but didn’t initially realize the call was for them. The firefighter, the turret operator on the truck, then heard the controller identify his truck (Truck 1) in a second call to stop but by then the truck was on the runway, having received clearance to cross about 10 seconds earlier. A few seconds later the RJ hit the loaded fire truck at 90 knots, killing the two pilots and injuring 39 passengers and crew seriously enough that they were taken to local hospitals. Six were seriously injured. Most of the preliminary report deals with the movements of a convoy of seven fire and rescue vehicles that were on their way to a United Airlines aircraft whose crew had reported fumes in the cabin.

The clearance for the convoy to cross was given when the airplane was a quarter mile from the threshold at about 130 feet AGL. The first order to stop was five seconds later and the second command to stop came eight seconds later, but by that time the truck was going 29 mph and only 100 feet from the runway. The airplane’s nosewheel had just touched down as the truck entered the runway and turned to the left. The collision occurred at the intersection of the runway and Taxiway D, but the wreckage of the truck and plane ended up several hundred feet away. The pilots and one flight attendant were ejected from the plane in their seats. The flight attendant survived. The evacuation of the rest of the plane went relatively smoothly, and when the weight of the occupants was gone the plane tilted back on its tail. The full report follows.