The investigation into the fatal crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport has revealed that the control tower allowed two vehicles onto the runway at once. National Transportation Safety Board officials said at a news conference Tuesday that a recovered recording shows one air-traffic controller gave permission for a fire truck to cross the runway about two minutes after their colleague had cleared an Air Canada flight to land. The crash of the emergency vehicle and the Bombardier CRJ-900 claimed the lives of both pilots, who had landed safely from Montreal on Sunday, and injured dozens more, including a flight attendant who was found outside the plane still strapped to her seat. Officials said the three-minute audio recording pulled from the 20-year-old jet reveals a controller had scrambled to try to get the fire truck to stop, but it was too late. “I would caution against pointing fingers at controllers and saying distraction was involved,” NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said. “This is a heavy workload environment.” The crash comes amid escalating concerns that Federal Aviation Administration controllers are working under extreme pressure after a flurry of incidents, including the midair collision on the Potomac River last year.
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