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

LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system to help eliminate dangerous runway incursions and prevent crashes.

Controllers in these airports have a display in the tower that's supposed to show them the location of every plane and vehicle.

The system, known as ASDE-X, didn't work as intended this time because the fire truck wasn't outfitted with a transponder, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. There were also emergency vehicles behind the fire truck that stopped in time, and the close proximity of the vehicles merging kept the system from triggering an alarm, she said.

More work is needed to determine whether an alert could have prevented the crash, she said.

Just last May, the FAA urged the 35 airports that have advanced surface surveillance systems like LaGuardia's to equip their vehicles with transponders and said federal money was available to help pay for them.

While the NTSB hasn't recommended that vehicles on airport grounds have transponders, they should be standard equipment, Homendy said.

"Air traffic controllers should know what's before them, whether it's on airport surface or in the airspace. They should have that information to ensure safety," she said.

Asked about the lack of a transponder in the fire truck, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said it was "unable to comment due to the ongoing investigation."

The NTSB laid out a timeline of the final moments after reviewing the Air Canada jet's cockpit voice recorder, which authorities recovered by cutting a hole in the aircraft's roof.

Investigators said that 25 seconds before the crash, the fire truck asked to cross the same runway where the plane had already been cleared to land nearly two minutes earlier.

One controller cleared the truck to cross the runway five seconds later, when the plane was a little more than 100 feet (30 meters) from the ground, the NTSB found.

Then, just nine seconds before the two collided, the tower told the fire truck to stop - a second before the plane's landing gear touched down, the NTSB said.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said that it appears that the airport's runway status lights were working, which might have warned the fire truck driver not to cross the runway even if the controller approved it.

The lights embedded in the pavement are designed to automatically turn red when a runway is occupied to signal to vehicle operators and pilots not enter that runway.

The controller could also see the vehicles and the plane out the tower window, said John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems. But there simply may not have been enough time to prevent the crash once the fire truck pulled onto the runway.

The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate Sunday's fatal collision at LaGuardia Airport.

The NTSB noted Tuesday that none of the vehicles rushing to the tarmac had tracking systems installed, including the Port Authority fire truck struck by the landing Air Canada flight.

The black boxes from the plane are still being inspected.

Phil Taitt has more on what we know at this time:

Phil Taitt reports from LaGuardia Airport.

Of the 76 passengers and crew on the Air Canada flight, 39 were immediately sent to hospitals in the area with varying degrees of injuries.

Air Canada said Tuesday afternoon that 35 passenger did not require immediate medical attention at the time and were able to depart for their final destination.

The airline said six people remain in the hospital.