The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said on Tuesday that a surface-movement surveillance system did not trigger an alert during a fatal collision at LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night involving an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 and a firetruck.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy told reporters in New York that the system known as ASDE-X - Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model XS - did not generate an alert because vehicles were merging and unmerging near the runway. That pattern, she said, prevented the system from creating a track it could assign with "high confidence." The agency is leading the probe into the accident.
The Air Canada Express CRJ-900, operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation, was carrying 72 passengers and four crew when it struck a firetruck while on the runway. The collision killed two pilots and injured dozens of passengers, according to the NTSB.
Homendy also noted that the firetruck crossing the runway to assist a separate aircraft did not have a transponder, a device carried by some vehicles at airports to enable surveillance. She contrasted that with trucks at other U.S. airports that do carry transponders.
The NTSB chair cautioned that it remains unclear whether any technology would have averted the crash, given how quickly events unfolded. She added that two controllers were working in the glass-enclosed portion of LaGuardia's air traffic control tower at the time of the collision.
Context and ongoing work
The NTSB is conducting an investigation into the causes and contributing factors of the runway collision. Statements from agency leadership indicate both technical limitations of surface-detection equipment and the configuration of ground vehicles at the airport are under review. The agency has not concluded whether equipment, procedures or personnel actions were causal or could have prevented the event.
The investigation is continuing and the NTSB has provided the factual details above while it gathers additional evidence and analyses.