Investigators probe whether LaGuardia traffic control worker stepped away to use emergency phone before deadly crash
Federal authorities are reportedly investigating whether an air traffic controller at LaGuardia Airport was forced to leave their console to use an emergency landline in the moments leading up to a fatal collision between an Air Canada Express jet and a fire truck. The inquiry is one of several critical questions being pursued by the National Transportation Safety Board, The New York Times reports, as it attempts to reconstruct the events of March 22. The crash, which resulted in the deaths of two pilots, occurred when the aircraft struck a Port Authority vehicle as it was landing. The collision marked the first fatal incident at the Queens airport in more than 30 years. Sources familiar with the investigation told The NYT that officials were looking into whether the use of a “crash phone” — a dedicated landline often located at a distance from active workstations — affected the controller’s ability to monitor the runway during a pivotal window of time. The staffing of the tower has remained a central point of the investigation. Federal Aviation …
