Investigators focus on overlapping failures in LaGuardia crash.

A passenger plane passes the wreckage of a fire truck and an Air Canada Express jet that collided on a runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. More delays were expected at the airport on Tuesday after the fatal collision forced the closure of a runway that officials say may not reopen for days. (Dave Sanders/The New York Times)

By LIAM STACK, ASHLEY SOUTHALL, KAROUN DEMIRJIAN and NATE SCHWEBER

The preliminary investigation into the deadly runway collision at LaGuardia Airport in New York late Sunday suggests it was caused by an overlapping series of failures that stemmed from problems with staffing and technology, officials from the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

“When something goes wrong, it means many, many things went wrong,” Jennifer Homendy, the board’s chair, said at a news conference Tuesday.

The fire truck that collided with an Air Canada jet did not have a transponder, unlike similar trucks at airports across the United States. That made it difficult for the airport’s early-warning systems to track its position. Investigators do not know if the drivers heard commands from air traffic controllers, which began roughly nine seconds before the accident, to stop their vehicle.

And the two controllers on duty Sunday night were doing the jobs of four people. Homendy said such a practice was common during night shifts at airports across the country but that the NTSB had raised safety concerns about it many times. This practice was also an issue in the January 2025 midair collision between a commercial jet and an Army helicopter above Ronald Reagan National Airport, she said.

Homendy said the findings she presented to reporters Tuesday were preliminary and that investigators had not interviewed key witnesses in the crash, including the controllers who were in the tower at the time and the officers in the fire truck.

The collision Sunday killed the two pilots of the Air Canada jet, injured dozens of other people and disrupted one of the busiest domestic hubs in the Northeast, which investigators said would be operating at diminished capacity for several more days.

Audio and video footage reviewed by The New York Times suggests that there was a communications breakdown, though it remained unclear why. Shortly before the collision, an air traffic controller is heard saying, “Stop, stop, stop, stop, Truck 1, stop, stop, stop.” Six seconds later, the controller again said, “Stop, Truck 1, stop!”

Homendy pushed back on the suggestion that distraction had played a role in the crash, saying it was too early to determine the dynamic inside the tower, where she said controllers were juggling a heavy workload.

A Port Authority of New York and New Jersey mobile command post parked next to the wreckage of a fire truck that was struck by Air Canada Express jet on a runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York, on Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (Dave Sanders/The New York Times)

The plane involved in the accident, Air Canada Express Flight 8646, departed from Montreal and landed at 11:37 p.m. Sunday carrying 72 passengers and four crew members, according to its operator, Jazz Aviation LP. The injured included several passengers, the two firefighters in the truck and a flight attendant who suffered a fractured leg after she was ejected from the plane.

LaGuardia reopened Monday afternoon, but the Federal Aviation Administration said that fewer planes would be arriving because the runway where the collision occurred — one of two at the airport — was still closed for crews to clear debris and investigators to document the scene. Departures were delayed by an average of nearly three hours.

Recordings of air traffic control audio communications reviewed by the Times suggest that air traffic controllers were focused on another emergency involving a United Airlines flight moments before the Air Canada jet struck the truck. The United jet had twice aborted a takeoff after pilots reported a foul odor in the cabin, prompting controllers to coordinate the plane’s return to a new gate and prepare emergency responders, according to Kathryn Garcia, the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the airport’s operator.

After the crash, the recordings captured a controller telling another pilot, “I messed up.” It was not immediately clear what he was referring to.

Here’s what else to know:

— Flight disruptions: About half of the roughly 1,000 flights scheduled to take off or land at LaGuardia on Tuesday had been canceled by midmorning, according to FlightAware data. Passengers are entitled to refunds for canceled flights. Those traveling on domestic flights delayed by more than three hours are also eligible for refunds if they choose not to travel.

— ICE presence: Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers deployed by President Donald Trump, some of whom had their faces covered, continued to patrol LaGuardia on Tuesday. Passengers and airport employees could be heard expressing displeasure at their presence.

— Pilots: The two pilots have not been publicly identified. Julie Bolcer, the New York City chief medical examiner, determined that they had died from blunt force injuries. Bryan Bedford, the FAA administrator, described them as “two young men at the start of their career.”

— Firefighters: The two firefighters on the truck were identified by officials as Sgt. Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez. The firefighting unit at LaGuardia is a specialized division of the Port Authority Police Department known as the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting unit. Baez was released from the hospital Monday night, while Orsillo remained hospitalized, according to the Port Authority.