LaGuardia plane crash: Runway reopens after mangled aircraft, truck removed

The National Transportation Safety Board is examining black box recordings recovered from Air Canada Express Flight 8646.

Runway 4 at LaGuardia Airport remains closed as investigators parse through the debris and wreckage of the Jazz Aviation Mitsubishi CRJ-900 and Port Authority fire truck involved in Sunday night's deadly collision.

Phil Taitt has the latest on the current status of the NTSB investigation.

Phil Taitt reports from LaGuardia Airport.

Plus, Jaysha Patel has more on the passengers and crew.

Jaysha Patel reports.

A woman from Long Island, who was on board the Air Canada flight when it collided with a fire truck on the runway, described the terrifying moments that followed.

"I just thank god that I was able to get out of the plane in one piece," said crash survivor Rebecca Liquori.

Liquori, from Baldwin, recorded the plane wreckage from the tarmac on her cell phone.

"It started as a normal happy day and ended as one of the worst days of my life," she said.

Chantee Lans spoke to Rebecca Liquori, one of the survivors of the collision.

Liquori says she was on her way home to Long Island from Montreal after attending her cousin's baby shower when the jet crashed into the fire truck.

"I didn't expect the whole front of the plane to be gone," she said. "Every time I close my eyes I hear the crash. I hear the screams. I hear the panic. I haven't been able to sleep since leaving the crash."

She described the moments leading up to the crash.

"He landed and it kind of jolted the plane and we jolted and everybody was like, 'oh, my god.' And then you hear this grinding noise of him, like hitting the brakes to try to slow down the impact. and then you just hear this huge boom."

Frightened, she says all she could think about was her husband and two young sons.

"The crash happened so quickly that I thought I was gone," Liquori said. "When I opened my eyes and I saw I'm still alive and I can still escape, I thought I have to get out. I have to make it to my boys."

She was seated at 19A, the emergency exit row.

"I opened mine on the left side. The person on the right side opened his," she said.

The person on the right was a man named Joe.

"Honestly, with what the pilots did there, I believed saved many lives on that flight and my heart is just broken for them," Liquori said.

Liquori said the pilots were heroes.

"Absolutely. They saved us and they weren't able to save themselves."

Liquori says Flight 8646 was delayed multiple times Sunday night. She says it was scheduled to leave at 8:30 p.m. but left closer to 10 p.m.

She also says it was overbooked. The airline offered $1,000 to passengers to catch the next flight. She says some people took it.

The Port Authority Police Benevolent Association released a statement Monday night following the tragic and deadly runway collision at LaGuardia Airport.

"The members of the Port Authority PBA are saddened by the deaths of the two Air Canada Flight 8646 pilots and offer their sincere condolences to their families. The Port Authority PBA is also thankful and grateful that the Port Authority police officer and sergeant are in stable condition. We hope for their complete recoveries.

The police officers of the Port Authority Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighter (ARFF) Unit were responding to an aircraft emergency as they approached Runway 4. Truck 1 was in the lead and received instruction from Air Traffic Control for the ARFF Unit to cross the runway. As Truck 1 started crossing the runway, it was struck by Air Canada Flight 8646.
The tragic crash occurred in view of the other ARFF Units. The members of those units immediately went into rescue operations evacuating the passengers, securing their safety while not knowing if their fellow officers in Truck 1 were dead or alive. True professionalism."

In an update from NTSB officials on Monday night, they said the Air Canada flight's cockpit voice recorder and cockpit data recorder (black boxes) were retrieved.

Officials said a hole was cut into the tail area of the plane to gain access and retrieve the recorders. They were immediately sent to Washington, D.C. to be reviewed.

The NTSB briefing did not provide a lot more information as investigators are still making their way to the scene, but more details are expected to be shared Tuesday.

There is "tremendous amount of debris" from the collision which expands from the taxiway to the runway and across other areas, according to NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy. Investigators need to go through all the debris, collect and document evidence, which she said could take days before the runway could be reopened for operations.

NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy led a briefing on the agency's investigation so far.

The NTSB has preliminary information on staffing inside the tower at the time of the collision, but Homendy said they will only share it once it's been verified. More information on staffing and the background and experience of the pilot is expected to be shared by the NTSB Tuesday.

A team of 25 investigators arrived on scene at LaGuardia with more expected to arrive soon. The investigators were able to conduct a walking inspection and safety walk of the scene on Monday.

"We also began to collect information from FAA and others, certainly on air traffic control, staffing in the tower, communications training. We're looking for information today from the fire and rescue department on their crew and on their vehicles, what the capabilities were of their vehicles, and you know, everything from how much they weighed to what they were carrying. And then we began to form our investigative groups for this investigation," Homendy said at the briefing.

NTSB is collecting surveillance video, and the FAA will also be sharing Airport Surface Detection Equipment replay of the event that was provided to the controller.

"We will be looking at that where we can see where the aircraft was at certain times, and whether the truck was visible on as the we'll also be getting an as the analysis from the FAA tech center that will provide us information on whether alerts were generated, and other data, including distance of aircraft, the aircraft that was landing on Runway 4 as the firefighting vehicle was approaching the runway from taxiway Delta," Homendy said.

The agency's first full day of investigation will be Tuesday.

Homendy also noted the challenges the investigators faced to get to the scene, from LaGuardia's closure earlier Monday, to the ground stop at Newark and the ongoing travel disruptions from the partial government shutdown.

She said the NTSB's air traffic control specialist was stuck in TSA lines for three hours until they intervened with Houston airport authorities to get her to New York. Some also took the train or and many drove to New York, Homendy said.