NEW YORK (WABC) -- A regional Air Canada jet collided with a Port Authority airport vehicle at LaGuardia Airport in New York City late Sunday, an on-the-ground crash that demolished the front of the airplane, killed two pilots, injured dozens of passengers and prompted the airport to shut down.
The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane reporting an odor onboard. Before the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop.
About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries.
The National Transportation Safety Board is working to determine which of the airport's many layers of safety precautions failed, allowing the fire truck onto the runway.
Among the areas being explored are whether the common practice of having two controllers on duty overnight is sufficient, why the runway warning system failed to alert the possibility of a crash, who was coordinating air and ground traffic, and whether the fire truck heard the controller's last-second pleas to stop.
(ABC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Antoine Forest has been identified by his family as one of the two pilots killed when a regional Air Canada jet collided with a Port Authority airport vehicle at LaGuardia Airport in New York City.
The airport's surveillance video was posted on X. It is disturbing, which is why we have stopped the video before the impact. The plane enters from left to right just as the fire truck crosses the runway. The truck rolls over, and the plane skids to a stop in a shower of sparks.
While the Air Canada Express Flight was descending into LGA just before midnight on Sunday, air traffic controllers were dealing with an incident on a separate aircraft.
An incoming United Airlines flight was experiencing an odor in its cabin and declared an emergency on board as some of the flight attendants were feeling ill, according to ATC audio recordings. The plane was asking for a gate to park at to let everyone out just before the collision with a different plane, and a fire truck happened.
The Port Authority fire truck radioed to Air Traffic Control, asking for permission to cross runway 4 to get to the United flight to check on passengers. But while Air Traffic Control could be heard giving the approval to cross, the Air Canada Express flight was descending onto the same runway.
"It is both significant and concerning," said Michael McCormick, a former VP of the FAA who used to be in charge of the airspace in the New York area.
According to McCormick, there's usually at least one controller directing ground traffic and at least one controller directing arrivals and departures. That's not what he heard initially on the audio recordings.
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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.
Plus, Jaysha Patel has more on the passengers and crew.
