More details and responses have emerged after tragedy struck New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sunday night.
Blaze News previously reported that an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 plane operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation struck a Port Authority Airport Rescue and Firefighting vehicle that was responding to a separate incident.
‘I feel like the pilots saved our lives.’
The incident, which occurred between approximately 11:40 p.m. and 11:47 p.m. on Sunday, according to multiple official sources, was likely caused by “multiple failures,” according to a lead investigator.
An air traffic controller could be heard saying, “I messed up,” shortly after the incident, which killed both pilots and hospitalized 41 other people, including the two workers in the emergency vehicle involved in the collision.
RELATED: ‘I messed up’: LaGuardia Airport shut down after deadly collision
The air traffic controller was coordinating the response to another, unrelated issue with a United Airlines flight across the tarmac. There were reports of a strange odor.
National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy appeared on “Fox & Friends” Tuesday and said that “we have a lot of questions” about the incident. She said it was “too early” to begin casting blame on any one actor involved.
“We have found in all of our investigations that it is not a single error that led to a terrible tragedy,” Homendy said.
“It takes multiple failures to occur for an accident like this. So we’re going to look very comprehensively.”
Thirty-two of the 41 injured had been released from the hospital as of Monday morning, Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said during a press conference. However, she reported that there were some serious injuries as well.
Many of the passengers of the flight told reporters that they felt they owed their lives to the late pilots, who did everything in their power to prevent a worse collision.
The New York Post reported that Rebecca Liquori told CNN on Monday that she is “forever indebted” to pilot Antoine Forest and first officer Mackenzie Gunther.
“I feel like the pilots saved our lives,” Liquori told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday. “They’re the reasons I was able to make it home safe to see my boys, and my heart goes out to their families.”
Jack Cabot, another passenger, had similar thoughts on the incident. “Right as we hit the ground, we kind of felt, like, the brake was pretty hard, and we all felt something was wrong,” Cabot told the CBC News Network. “And then, it was just this sudden, overwhelming, like, panic, because we’d hit something, and there was nobody in control.”
LaGuardia reopened at 2:00 p.m. on Monday, though Runway 4, the scene of the crash, is expected to be closed for longer due to the investigation and removal of debris.
There will reportedly be a more detailed press conference on Tuesday, though Homendy told Fox that “conclusions will take time.”
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Politics, Laguardia airport, Laguardia, Jennifer homendy, Rebecca liquori, Antoine forest, Kathryn garcia, Port authority of new york and new jersey, National transportation safety board, Air traffic controller, United airlines