Firefighters and investigators examine the site, Monday, March 23, 2026, where an Air Canada jet came to rest after colliding with a Port Authority fire truck at LaGuardia Airport, after landing Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

By The Canadian Press

Demands on air traffic controllers under the spotlight after fatal Air Canada crash

Mar 23, 2026 | 12:00 PM

MONTREAL — A fatal collision between an Air Canada jet and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport late Sunday has drawn attention to the demands that a strained navigation system places on traffic controllers, and how even strict protocols failed to prevent tragedy.

Audio from the tower revealed that a controller had been dealing with an earlier emergency when he cleared Air Canada Express Flight 8646 to land. Less than a minute later, he cleared a fire truck to cross the active runway.

Footage viewed by The Canadian Press shows the Bombardier CRJ-900 jet speeding along the nighttime runway as the truck crosses its path, turning away too late from an impact that unleashed a trail of smoke and debris.

“I messed up,” the controller says. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier.”

The collision occurred shortly after 11:30 p.m. on Sunday as the plane — operated by Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation — touched down in New York City after its journey from Montreal’s Trudeau airport. The crash killed two pilots and sent 41 people to hospital.

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New York-based aviation accident lawyer Erin Applebaum called the incident “an avoidable tragedy.”

“This is a controller’s absolute worst nightmare,” she said.

“It’s important to point out that there was another emergency going on at the same time. It was just a confluence of factors.”

The tower had been dealing with a United Airlines flight that aborted its takeoff after the crew reported a strange odour in the cabin and began to hunt for a spare gate.

On final approach to an airport, pilots are in close communication with the air traffic control tower, which clears them for landing. The tower is also responsible for giving the thumbs-up to any groundcrew looking to cross the runway, including first responders.

Experts say it’s not uncommon — particularly late at night when takeoffs and landings are fewer — for the same air traffic controller to handle both incoming aircraft and groundcrew movement, as appeared to be the case Sunday based on tower communications from LaGuardia. But they also say it raises questions about whether more bodies are required and the risks of a staffing shortage that has plagued the industry for years.

“It’s going to bring them to the forefront,” said Phyl Durdey, CEO of Brampton, Ont.-based Flightline Training Services.

“He’s under a lot of duress,” Durdey said of the flight controller.

Staffing issues have come under the spotlight in recent years. Several experts pointed to a deadly mid-air crash in Washington, D.C., in January last year.

The collision between an American Airlines jet carrying 64 people and a Black Hawk army helicopter carrying three soldiers killed everyone on board both aircraft, making it the worst U.S. aviation disaster in almost a quarter century.

“Just like in the D.C. collision, the investigators are going to focus not only on the direct cause of this tragedy, but the larger root causes. What kind of position was this controller placed in as a result of staffing shortages and increased workload,” said aviation lawyer Kevin Mahoney.

The 2025 crash followed several near misses at Reagan National Airport and other U.S. hubs in the preceding two years, which prompted some officials and industry players to sound the alarm.

In 2023, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration convened industry leaders to address what it saw as a national system under strain. The agency announced plans to ratchet up hiring of air traffic controllers, deal with complaints of fatigue and install new technology to alert personnel when planes were on a possible collision course.

North of the border, Nav Canada, which provides air traffic control for the country’s airports, warned last April of flight delays at Vancouver’s airport over “resource constraints.”

Filling the countrywide labour gap will be a challenge. The process to become an air traffic professional is among the longest in aviation, topped only by pilots and a few other specialized jobs. The role demands between 10 and 27 months of training. Parental leave or a move to a new airport mean months of retraining.

At Nav Canada, the graduation rates for air traffic controllers sat at about 40 per cent last year, according to its chief human resources officer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2026.

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Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press