Pilot safety concerns about New York's LaGuardia airport were filed to aviation officials months before Sunday's collision between an airplane and a fire truck left two pilots dead and 41 other people hospitalized, according to reports from Nasa's aviation safety reporting system.
In a report filed in the summer, a pilot wrote, 'Please do something,' after air traffic controllers failed to provide appropriate guidance about multiple nearby aircraft. 'The pace of operations is building in LGA,' they wrote. 'The controllers are pushing the line.' The pilot also referenced the January 2025 mid-air collision over the Potomac River in Washington DC, saying, 'On thunderstorm days, LGA is starting to feel like [Ronald Reagan National airport] did before the accident there.'
The pilot described a close call where the control tower initiated a takeoff clearance for an aircraft while their plane was 'only 300 feet high on final' approach on a different runway, and the departing plane hesitated. The pilot noted that thick, smoky haze from Canadian wildfires and a possible helicopter convinced him it was 'safer to continue the approach and land [about] 10 seconds after the departing aircraft crossed our path.'
In another report since January 2025, a pilot said their aircraft was cleared to cross a runway but 'noticed an aircraft we thought was landing at [runway] 31C seemingly headed for us.' They added that air traffic control 'should have sent the aircraft around.'
The crash involved an Air Canada Express flight 646 from Montreal that collided with an airport firetruck cleared to cross the runway, killing pilots MacKenzie Gunther and Antoine Forest. After clearing the truck, the controller tried to stop it, later saying he had been 'dealing with an emergency earlier' and 'messed up.'
The incident has raised concerns about stress on US airport operations, including a shortage of air traffic controllers exacerbated by federal personnel cuts, ageing equipment, and a partial government shutdown since mid-February that has caused long security lines and the resignation of over 450 TSA officers.
