LaGuardia Crash: Investigators Probe Controller's Absence

On April 2nd, investigators probing the deadly crash at LaGuardia Airport on March 22nd

are zeroing in on why an air traffic controller.

Might have left his post right before an air-Canada jet smashed into a fire truck.

The collision killed two young pilots, 30-year-old Mackenzie Gunther and 24-year-old Antoine

Forest, and sent 40 others to the hospital.

It was the first fatal wreck there in 34 years.

Earlier that night, a united fight called in an emergency about a weird odor in the cockpit.

With just two controllers on the late shift, one had to dash across the tower to grab a

landline phone, leaving the runway unchecked at a critical moment.

Audio captures the chaos, with controllers yelling stop, stop, stop to the lead fire truck

as it rolled onto the runway.

One controller later admitted to a nearby pilot, we were handling that emergency and I messed

up.

The pilot reassured him he did his best.

Now, the National Transportation Safety Board is digging into other angles like Heavy

Rain, possible radio glitches where truck mics blocked, instructions, and whether the

driver even saw the jet barreling at 150 miles per hour.

Interviews with controllers and firefighters continue, alongside data, recreating sightlines

and truck paths.

This probe aims to piece together the chain of airs in a storm slam night that turned

routine off steadily.