Questions are mounting over whether air traffic control staffing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport followed required procedures on the night an Air Canada jet collided with a fire truck, after a document reviewed by Reuters suggested key control roles may have been combined too early.
The March 22 crash happened at about 11:37 p.m. ET and killed both pilots. The collision has renewed scrutiny of controller shortages in the United States and the pressure placed on tower staff during busy operating periods. Investigators are now examining who was handling which duties inside the tower at the time of the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board said last week it is seeking details about the duties assigned to each controller on the night of the collision. That issue matters because LaGuardia’s tower procedures do not allow local and ground control positions to be merged before midnight local time, or 90 minutes after a shift begins, whichever is later.
“Positions at LaGuardia Tower are not to be consolidated to one position prior to midnight local time or 90 minutes after the start of the shift, whichever is later,” said the 2023 document, which people familiar with the matter said remained current in 2026.
An NTSB final report into a 1997 collision at LaGuardia involving a private jet and a vehicle had already referenced updated procedures requiring that “local and ground positions shall not be combined prior to” midnight.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said two controllers were working in a glass-enclosed section of the tower when the accident occurred. One was handling active runways and nearby airspace, while the controller-in-charge was also issuing departure clearances.
“It is not clear who was conducting the duties of the ground controller. We have conflicting information,” she said.
Homendy said the controller-in-charge signed in at 10:30 p.m. and the local controller signed on at 10:45 p.m. Multiple current and retired controllers told Reuters they believe the local controller was handling both runway and ground traffic, based on audio posted by LiveATC.net.
Traffic levels that night appear to have added strain. Cirium data showed 70 commercial flights took off or landed between 10 p.m. and 11:37 p.m., above the average of 53 for the same period since 2022. Several controllers told Reuters the workload was busy enough that extra staff would normally stay late or be called in.
“And that is not even talking about the traffic, volume and complexity that night,” said a current New York-area controller who spoke on condition of anonymity.
