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

Investigators on Thursday will conduct interviews with at least one of the two police officers that was in grave danger inside the Port Authority firetruck that collided with the Air Canada plane at LaGuardia Airport.

Meantime, questions over staffing and safety systems at LGA intensify. NTSB has completed their examination of the wreckage following the deadly crash on site, and has turned over the jet to Air Canada.

Crews worked through the night to remove the wreckage of the jet and the Port Authority firetruck that collided on Sunday night.

The firetruck had been cleared to cross the runway just seconds before the collision by an air traffic controller.

The bodies of the pilots killed in the crash were scheduled to be flown home in a dignified transfer on an Air Canada plane departing from Newark Liberty Airport Wednesday night.

Phil Taitt reports from LaGuardia Airport.

The bodies of the pilot and co-pilot killed in the crash will be flown home in a dignified transfer on an Air Canada plane departing from Newark Liberty International Airport on Wednesday night.

The bodies were released from the Medical Examiner's office to a Queens funeral home after autopsies determined both men died of blunt force injuries.

By midafternoon at LaGuardia on Wednesday, the lines for security screening stretched across both ends of Terminal B.

Across the concourse, around corners and back again. Hundreds and hundreds of people dragging their bags and inching along, determined to catch their flights if it takes all day.

The line for TSA Pre-check was at least 90 minutes. For those without it, it was literally hours.

Roughly 70% of LaGuardia's scheduled flights took off Wednesday.

The rest were canceled with one of the airport's two runways was still closed. Port Authority police assisted NTSB investigators in the afternoon as they got their first look inside the mangled cockpit of Air Canada Flight 8646.

The jet touched down at roughly 100 miles per hour when it slammed into a 35-ton fire truck crossing the runway on Sunday night. Both pilots were killed-everyone else survived.

N.J. Burkett has the latest at LaGuardia Airport following the deadly plane crash.

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."