Overview
- The NTSB preliminary report, released Thursday, finds the fatal March 22 collision stemmed from multiple communication errors and missing safety equipment.
- Tower controllers cleared an airport firetruck to cross the runway while an Air Canada jet was on final approach to land.
- Seconds later a controller radioed “Stop, stop, stop,” but one truck crew member did not realize the warning was for them until hearing “Truck one, stop, stop, stop,” after the vehicle had already entered the runway.
- The firetruck carried no transponder, a beacon that lets surveillance systems track ground vehicles, so the system did not pair the truck’s path with the landing aircraft or issue a conflict alert.
- The crash killed both pilots and sent more than 40 people to hospitals, and the NTSB says the final report could take up to a year and may prompt tighter radio phraseology and transponder use for airport vehicles.