Deadly crash at LaGuardia came after communication issues, NTSB says

USA Today
Jeanine Santucci
24 Apr 2026

A new report from the National Transportation Safety Board released about a month after the crash between a plane and truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport details the busy conditions for air traffic controllers and communication issues at play just before the deadly collision.

The preliminary report, released on April 23, said that the March 22 crash came after an air traffic controller gave a fire truck permission to cross a runway, then frantically ordered it to stop just moments before an Air Canada Express jet struck it after landing on the runway.

The Air Canada Express Flight 8646 and the aircraft rescue firefighting truck collided at just after 11:30 p.m. The plane was arriving from Montreal with 72 passengers and four crew members on board, authorities have said. The truck had been responding to a separate incident with a United Airlines flight after crew reported an odor on board.

The NTSB said its report was preliminary, and did not offer a definitive cause of the crash...

Deadly crash at LaGuardia came after communication issues, NTSB says - USA Today - 24 Apr 2026