The deadly LaGuardia plane crash almost certainly involved “multiple failures,” the lead investigator said Tuesday.
National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy said it was “too early” to solely blame the air traffic controller who was heard saying they “messed up” soon after a landing Air Canada jet crashed into a fire truck, killing the two pilots and hospitalizing 41 others.
“We have found in all of our investigations that it is not a single error that led to a terrible tragedy,” Homendy told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends.”
“Our aviation system is incredibly safe and it takes multiple failures to occur for an accident like this.”
“So we’re going to look very comprehensively.”
The deadly chaos unfolded when the Air Canada plane plowed into the fire truck after the vehicle was given permission to check on another plane that had aborted its takeoff.
Just moments before the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard frantically telling the fire truck to stop.
Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appears to blame himself.
“We were dealing with an emergency earlier,” the controller could be heard saying. “I messed up.”
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About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, as well as two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals.
