LaGuardia plane crash: Runway safety system ‘did not alert,’ NTSB says – ABC7 New York
LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system to help eliminate dangerous runway incursions and prevent crashes.
Controllers in these airports have a display in the tower that’s supposed to show them the location of every plane and vehicle.
The system, known as ASDE-X, didn’t work as intended this time because the fire truck wasn’t outfitted with a transponder, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said. There were also emergency vehicles behind the fire truck that stopped in time, and the close proximity of the vehicles merging kept the system from triggering an alarm, she said.
More work is needed to determine whether an alert could have prevented the crash, she said.
Just last May, the FAA urged the 35 airports that have advanced surface surveillance systems like LaGuardia’s to equip their vehicles with transponders and said federal money was available to help pay for them.
While the NTSB hasn’t recommended that vehicles on airport grounds have transponders, they should be standard equipment, Homendy said.
“Air traffic controllers should know what’s before them, whether it’s on airport surface or in the airspace. They should have that information to ensure safety,” she said.
Asked about the lack of a transponder in the fire truck, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport, said it was “unable to comment due to the ongoing investigation.”
