LaGuardia Airport air traffic controller repeatedly called for vehicle to "stop, stop, stop" in deadly collision
Air traffic control audio of Sunday night's deadly LaGuardia Airport runway collision is shedding light on the incident, with one controller first giving an emergency vehicle permission to cross a runway and then telling it to "stop, stop, stop."
A pilot and co-pilot were killed and 41 were injured.
So far, officials have not said whether air traffic control staffing played a role in the collision, but short staffing is an issue that has burdened the Federal Aviation Administration for years.
The FAA said Sunday night's staffing at LaGuardia will be a part of the investigation, but it hasn't said yet how many controllers were working.
"Stop Truck 1, stop"
Audio from ATC.com captures air traffic controllers speaking to the emergency ground responders who were responding to a report of an odor in the cabin of a United Airlines flight.
The Air Canada jet was moving up Runway 4 when an air traffic controller cleared the Port Authority truck to cross the same runway. The plane was traveling around 100 mph when they collided.
Emergency vehicle: "Truck 1 and company LaGuardia Tower requesting to cross 4 at Delta."
Air traffic controller: "Truck 1 and company, cross 4 at Delta."
Emergency vehicle: "Truck 1 and company crossing 4 at Delta."
Just seconds later, the air traffic controller sends out an urgent message.
Air traffic controller: "Frontier 4195, stop there, please. Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1, stop, stop, stop. Stop Truck 1, stop. Stop Truck 1, stop."
Moments after, the air traffic controller can be heard acknowledging the collision.
Air traffic controller: "646, I see you collided with a vehicle there, just hold position. I know you can't move."
After the deadly crash, an air traffic controller spoke with the crew from another flight.
Pilot: "That wasn't good to watch."
Air traffic controller: "Yeah, I know. I was here. I tried to reach out to my staff, and we were dealing with an emergency earlier, and I messed up."
Pilot: "No, man, you did the best you could."
"The composite material is of the planes, themselves, are not designed for real high-speed impacts. And so, that's why we saw just the devastating damage that was caused to the front of this airplane," aviation expert Daniel Bubb said.
"I would expect there would be two controllers"
Michael McCormick, a former FAA vice president of Air Traffic Organization, now teaches at Embry Riddle's College of Aviation.
"I would expect there would be two controllers. One controller responsible for the movement of ground traffic, such as the vehicles, and another controller responsible for the runways," McCormick said.
The Department of Transportation said there was more than one controller working in the tower, but would not say how many. The agency also said the overall staffing for the tower includes 33 certified controllers, which is about four fewer than the FAA's ideal staffing target.
The FAA has not said exactly how many controllers were working, but McCormick and other aviation experts say staffing tends to drop late at night when there are fewer flights.
Regardless of the time of day, the number of controllers in the U.S. has dropped 6% in the last decade, according to a recent federal audit. During that same period, the number of flights relying on the air traffic control system increased 10%.
A former NTSB senior air safety investigator told CBS News New York the NTSB will also look into staffing.
"It's all about situational awareness"
"It's all about situational awareness, distraction. This is human factors. This is what the board, I think, will be focused on, is what was the controller doing? How much of the workload? Was there fatigue involved since it was a nighttime operation, and these controllers work varying shifts. They work a morning, a mid, and a night, so fatigue will definitely be one of those questions that needs to be answered."
Staffing challenges and fatigue are constant concerns on a job where split-second decisions have major consequences.
"Usually pilots, you can apply brakes, you can apply thrust reversers, but if you don't have enough distance, there's not a lot you can do," former NTSB Chair Robert Sumwalt said.
"I think the thing that just draws my attention is again, with this controller -- you know, were they handling two jobs? Were they working beyond their shift? Were they a working a sixth day?" Bubb added.
The FAA has struggled to recruit and retain controllers over the years at one of New York's main air traffic control facilities -- the New York TRACON.
The agency says it has been working to bolster staffing nationwide, and the agency met its 2025 hiring goal by bringing in 2,000 new controllers.
