An Air Canada Express CRJ-900 sits on the runway after colliding with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York,

An Air Canada Express CRJ-900 sits on the runway after colliding with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York,

 TIMOTHY A. CLARY

Moments before an Air Canada Express plane collided with a firetruck on the runway of New York's LaGuardia Airport, a traffic controller cleared the truck to cross the runway and then urgently ordered it to halt, a recording showed.

The collision Sunday night killed the pilot and co-pilot, and 41 people on board were taken to the hospital, officials said.

The plane, operated by Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, struck the firetruck on Runway 4 at around 11:40 pm as the truck drove to a separate incident.

Below is a transcript of the exchange:

Driver: "Truck one and company, LaGuardia Tower. Requesting to cross four at Delta."

Controller: "Truck one and company, cross four at Delta."

Driver: "Truck one and company crossing four at Delta."

Controller: "Frontier 4195, stop there please. (Pause.) Stop, stop, stop, truck one, stop, stop, stop. Stop, truck one, stop! Stop, truck one, stop." 

(Alarm goes off.)

"Jazz 646. Jazz 646, I see you collided with vehicle. (Inaudible) Hold position. I know he can't move. Vehicles are responding to you now."

After further dialogue.

Second controller: "Man, that wasn't good to watch."

First controller: "Yeah, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to my staff. And we were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up."

Second controller: "No man, you did the best you could."

mjf/bgs

Originally published on doc.afp.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.

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