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An Air Canada Jet carrying 72 people collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday, leaving both the pilot and co-pilot dead and sending 41 passengers to hospital. While 32 people have been released, nine are still there, including some in serious condition.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has sent a team of investigators to New York to assist American authorities investigate.
Canadian aviation expert John Gradek joined The Evan Bray Show on Monday to talk about the crash.
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Listen to the full interview with Gradek or read the transcript below:
This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Evan Bray: What do you see unfolding here?
Gradek: I think that we’re going to go through a fairly quick investigation in terms of all of the data that’s required to support what happened.
All of the communication, all of the visuals have all been recorded, so we’ll know the exact sequence of events fairly quickly.
We’ll probably hear what happened from the authorities within the next three to four weeks, but we won’t know why it happened for another four or five months.
Bray: These types of things aren’t that common, are they?
Gradek: They’re very, very uncommon. You have air traffic controllers that are looking at managing arrivals and departures, and then you have other ground controllers managing ground traffic. They have a lot of systems and a lot of data in front of them.
They have a ground radar, they have air radar, and they have locations of both aircraft and ground vehicles — all of the information they need to get the job done safely. It’s a complex job but something happened last night that may have caused a controller to miss something that was happening.
Bray: The plane really did collapse in the cone, that front part of the plane. Is that pretty standard in terms of the construction of them?
Gradek: That nose cone is filled with electronic equipment so it’s not built to handle a collision. It’s built to house and protect that equipment from the weather or from bird strikes or hail. They’re not built to withstand any type of major collision.
Bray: Would a different model of plane made a difference?
Gradek: I think that if an A320, a 777 or an A380 had hit the fire truck there would still be some damage. You’re talking about a 15-ton truck that is stopped on a runway and when you hit it at a reasonable speed, you’ll have damage.
It may not have been as extensive damage to the cockpit if you were flying a 777 or an A380, but you’ll still have damage.
Bray: Is there a possibility that staffing was a factor?
Gradek: There probably is, but it’s not related to TSA and ICE redeployment. This is a long-standing shortage that the FAA has had for a few years, since COVID-19. Right now they’re short 3,000 workers in air traffic control, approach control and ground control.
A lot of the current rostering probably has a lot of double shifts to cover off those open shifts because of the staffing shortages, and that is quite disconcerting.
When you have these guys who have to pay attention and have to be spatially aware and operationally aware second by second on their eight-hour shifts, and you’re having them work sixteen-hour shifts, there is a risk that their spatial awareness and their decision-making and the speed by which they make decisions might be affected.
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