Report Says Safety Systems Did Not Work Before Airport Crash
Introduction
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) put out a report on April 23. The report is about a crash at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The crash happened on March 22. A plane hit a fire truck. Two pilots died.
Main Body
The report says a safety system did not work. Red lights on the runway tell drivers to stop. These lights stayed on until three seconds before the crash. The system should turn off the lights two to three seconds before a plane arrives. The plane was a CRJ-900. It landed two seconds before the crash. It was moving at 167 kilometers per hour. 39 people went to the hospital. Six people had bad injuries. The airport''s ground radar did not warn about the fire truck near the runway. The fire truck did not have a special device called a transponder. A transponder sends the truck''s location to air traffic control. The FAA told airports to put transponders on fire trucks. A person on the fire truck heard someone say "stop, stop, stop" on the radio. He did not know who the person was talking to. Then he heard "Truck 1, stop, stop, stop." He knew the message was for his truck. He understood they were on the runway. The air traffic controller for the plane had 18 years of experience. The ground controller had 19 years of experience.
Conclusion
The NTSB is looking into the crash. The report shows that safety systems did not work. The report also shows that the airport did not have technology to track vehicles.