LaGuardia Airport runway crash "very disturbing" and "highly unusual," commercial airline pilot says

The deadly crash between an Air Canada jet and a firefighting truck at LaGuardia Airport Sunday night has other pilots reacting. 

"It's very disturbing to see, because this is highly unusual for a situation like this to happen," commercial airline pilot Capt. Laura Einsetler said. Einsetler was not involved in Sunday night's crash. 

"As a pilot for major airlines with large aircraft, we have the priority on the runway. So for those crew members to see at the last second, if they saw the emergency equipment at all, is just very concerning," she said. 

Einsetler said coordination between emergency equipment moving across runways and airplanes is a key priority for air traffic controllers. 

"Air traffic control does a really good job typically of coordinating emergency equipment in and around the airport, and keeps us separate from them, unless we're the aircraft that's in distress and we need them once we land to help to assess the situation, put out fires," Einsetler said. "That emergency equipment, those operators, were trying to actually help another aircraft, and in this case, collided with the Air Canada Embraer, so." 

Einsetler said a pilot is typically most concerned about slowing the plane down once they land, and where they are supposed to turn off the runway. 

"In this case, obviously, there was a breakdown in communication. And really, everybody always needs to have heads-up understanding situational awareness, and where everything is at that time, especially at night," Einsetler said.