NTSB lays out early steps in LaGuardia probe

And we want to now take you live to New York's LaGuardia Airport, where officials are giving an update on that collision. Let's listen in live. B-R-A-Z-Y-. Doug Brazy is our Investigator In Charge, or IIC, as we refer to the investigator in charge. He is a senior aviation accident investigator, and he has been with the NTSB for 34 years. NTSB, as some of you may know, is an independent federal agency that's charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States, as well as significant events in other modes of transportation. We are independent. We are not part of the US Department of Transportation. And why that is important to mention is that as part of our investigation, we also have oversight authority in the investigation over the Federal Aviation Administration. We're here to investigate a collision between a Bombardier CRJ 900 with an aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle while the aircraft was landing at LaGuardia last night, around 11:37 PM Eastern Daylight Time. The airplane was operated by Jazz aviation, doing business as Air Canada Express Flight 8646. It had 72 passengers on board and four crew on board. Two firefighters were in the firefighting vehicle. I want to just take a moment, and on behalf of the entire National Transportation Safety Board, express our deepest condolences to those who lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy. We also know others have suffered injury, and our sympathies are with each of you as well. I will mention we have five members of our transportation disaster assistance team here on scene, as well as the chief of our Transportation Disaster Assistance Division. They work in concert with the American Red Cross-- and thank you to the American Red Cross-- to provide resources and information about our investigation and what we are doing to those who lost loved ones or those survivors or families of survivors throughout the investigation, not just here on scene, but as we move forward with our investigation through the final board meeting and sometimes after. We also expect to have around 25 specialists on site here on scene. That is in addition to many employees at the NTSB who are supporting this investigation back at headquarters in Washington, DC. The team in total began to arrive at 3:10 AM. Some are still en route, which means that we have not had a full-day investigation here today. And I think that's important because there are a lot of questions, and I understand there are a lot of questions. I've heard them on air traffic control. I've heard questions on the tower. I've heard questions on air traffic control communications. I've heard questions on the vehicle, many questions. And I know that you all have those questions, but I just want to set expectations. We have LaGuardia that was shut down, we had a ground stop at Newark today, and then we have DHS that's shut down, and we have long TSA lines. We have one-- our air traffic control specialist, who was in line with TSA for three hours, until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through so we can get her here. So it's been a really, really big challenge to get the entire team here. And they're still arriving as I speak, right up until about-- I think the latest I saw was midnight, maybe 1:00 AM tomorrow morning. So it is a long travel day for many of those. And many are arriving by, sure, plane. We have had many that have come here by train and, certainly, automobile. We drove up, a number of us. So with that said, I do want to talk a little bit about what we were able to do today. We did a walking inspection of the scene. And we have a site commander doing a really important job, which is a safety walkthrough of the scene to make sure that our investigators are safe while they are on scene. There is a tremendous, tremendous amount of debris from taxiway Delta across runway 4 into some other areas. It's pretty expansive. And we want to make sure-- because as you're walking around, you can get injured. There's also hazardous materials, of course, on the firefighting vehicle itself. So we want to make sure their safety. In addition, obviously, the tail of this aircraft is on the ground. And in order to get to the Cockpit Voice Recorder and the Flight Data Recorder, the Port Authority and the emergency responders cut a hole on the roof of the aircraft, dropped down, and was able to get the CVR and FDR for us, which then one of our investigators drove back to our labs in Washington, DC today, where they've been able to at least verify that the cockpit voice recorder was not damaged. They'll begin to work on the FDR, the flight data recorder, tomorrow. And hopefully we'll have information to share-- my hope is that we'll have information to share on that tomorrow in a press conference. We also began to collect information from FAA and others, certainly on air traffic control staffing in the tower, communications training. We're looking for information today from the fire and rescue department on their crew and on their vehicles, what the capabilities were of their vehicles, everything from how much they weighed to what they were carrying. And then we began to form our investigative groups for this investigation. So we have an operations group that we have formed. And that will look at the operator itself, as well as procedures and training for the aircraft. We will have a systems investigative group. That group will examine the components of the airplane's hydraulic, electrical, navigational, pneumatic, and associated systems, including instruments and flight control system. We have a structures group that will be documenting the airframe wreckage and the accident scene, including calculating impact angles. And we have an air traffic control investigative group as well as-- I mentioned a cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder group. And finally, we'll have an airport operations and survival factors combined group. That group will look at the airport rescue and firefighting operations at the airport. And they will look at injuries to occupants as it relates to the dynamics of this crash. I mentioned we have the CVR and FDR. We've also collected and have continued to collect surveillance video. We've asked the Federal Aviation Administration, who will be providing that ASDE replay of the event-- ASDE, Airport Surface Detection Equipment, replay of the event. And that is actually looking at the ASDE display that was provided to the controller. And so we will be looking at that, where we can see where the aircraft was at certain times and whether the truck was visible on ASDE. We'll also be getting an asdi analysis from the FAA's tech center that will provide us information on whether alerts were generated and other data, including distance of the aircraft that was landing on runway 4 as the firefighting vehicle was approaching the runway from taxiway Delta. With that, I'm going to take some questions. But again, I just want to be clear. I know you have a lot of questions, you have a lot of detailed questions, and you want that information. I hope to provide more of that information tomorrow. I won't be able to provide a lot of that information tonight. We have a lot of data right now, a lot of information, including information on tower staffing. But the NTSB deals in facts. We don't speculate. We don't take one person at their word. We verify that information carefully before we provide it. So that is something we still have to do. With that, I'll take-- can you provide your name and affiliation?

[INAUDIBLE] Can you articulate a few of the unanswered questions that you're seeking answers to [INAUDIBLE] crash, particularly [INAUDIBLE]? Can I articulate some of the remaining questions that we have, particularly-- well, for this investigation, for the accident itself, and particularly related to air traffic control, at this stage of the investigation, we don't limit ourselves. So we have questions on everything. And we look for everything. We collect everything. We may have information that comes our way that we didn't expect. So we don't rule anything out until later. So we have a lot of questions on everything. Yes? [INAUDIBLE] from CNN. On the tower [INAUDIBLE], can you at least tell us how many controllers were in the tower? Was that air traffic controller that we have now heard, that audio, was that man also doing ground control and air traffic control at the same time? Give us any information about the pilots, how much experience they have? Yeah. The question is, can I provide information regarding staffing in the tower? Can I provide information on what position the controller held that was communicating? And can I provide information about the pilot backgrounds at this time? Not at this time. I will have that information tomorrow. Do we have information? Yes. But we need to verify that information before we provide it. It's just preliminary information, and we aren't able to provide it yet.

[INAUDIBLE] the FAA [INAUDIBLE]? We still have to do-- the question is, how do we go about verifying it? We have to look at records. There's sign-in sheets. We have to do interviews. We have to look at time cards. There's a lot of information that we-- and then official records from the airline. So that is information we always have to corroborate. David? And then I'm going to come over here.

Dave Shepardson, Reuters. Can you tell us where the Air Canada Express plane was in the sky when the controller gave the order to let the fire truck cross? And can you say anything about the experience level of controllers, [? if ?] these are experienced controllers? The question is, where was the aircraft when the controller gave clearance for the truck, the firefighting truck to cross? And the experience of the controllers-- the experience of the controllers, we still have to look at. On where the aircraft was, that's part of what we hope to get from the FDR, which we'll get hopefully tomorrow, the flight data recorder, but then also from the ASDE analysis that the tech center will provide us.

Did the pilot follow all the instructions [INAUDIBLE]? The question is, did the pilots follow all the instructions? We still have to have the cockpit voice recorder verified and analyzed by all the group members before we can provide any information on that. Yes?

[INAUDIBLE] Wall Street Journal. How long had the controller involved in the incident-- how long was he on shift prior to [INAUDIBLE]? How long did he remain on shift after the collision? The question is on the shift of the controllers. Again, this was mid shift. Typically-- and again, I'm just going to say this preliminarily. It could be different tomorrow-- the shift might run 10:30 to 6:00 AM. But we have to verify that, and we have to verify how long the controllers were on before they took over and when the shift change was.

[INAUDIBLE] protocol [INAUDIBLE]? The question is-- well, first let me-- there was a question on whether there was a crew member ejected on impact. We don't answer those questions. I would refer you to the chief medical examiner for New York City. That person can answer those questions. We don't comment on fatalities or injuries at this stage. And your other question--

What protocols-- --was what protocols exist between, say, airport operations with respect to firefighting and aircraft landing? That is part of our investigation, and we'll be looking at that throughout this investigation.

[INAUDIBLE] question. I know you can't say specifically last night, but in general, how many people are in air traffic control on that [INAUDIBLE] shift at LaGuardia? And a second question-- Well, hold on. The question is, how many are on shift typically? That's still something we have to verify with our air traffic control team. And then is there an estimate about when runway 4 might be open? So I know you have to get out there and look at it. But [INAUDIBLE] can walk there? So are we talking 24 hours, 48? The question is, how long will that runway be closed for us to conduct our investigation? It's going to take some time. I just want to express how much-- there is a lot of debris. We need to go through all of that and to figure out what we need to take back to the NTSB, to our labs, what we might want to collect, first and foremost, what we need to take pictures of to document that evidence. That's all evidence. And we need to document that first. Then we need to collect some of that evidence. Then we get to that. It's going to be days.

But not a week? I'm not sure.

Two more questions. Yep.

Hi. [INAUDIBLE] Canadian Press. How do you work with Canadian investigative authorities. When are they set to arrive?

All right. You've been listening live to NTSB officials give an update this hour on that deadly collision between a passenger jet and fire rescue truck at LaGuardia Airport late last night. So NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy is saying crews did a walking inspection of the scene She also says they were able to cut a hole on the roof of the aircraft so then they could retrieve the black box inside. She also says that black box was taken to a lab in DC. Homendy confirming it was not damaged and saying the NTSB hopes to share more information on what may be on that cockpit voice recorder tomorrow. Air traffic controller staffing also a huge question in the wake of this crash-- Homendy saying NTSB began collecting info from the FAA on staffing that they will now investigate. So CBS News's Jarred Hill joins me now from LaGuardia with more on this developing story. So walk us through what we learned from this NTSB announcement today. So, Shanelle when it comes to what we learned here, there wasn't a lot of information on the specifics of what was happening on the ground with the investigation, but we did glean a bit more information about how they're going about doing their investigation here. And one thing that stood out to me was that they said that they want to get ahold of whatever display the air traffic controller was looking at the time this happened. Because remember, from what we can hear in that air traffic control audio, at one point, he had given this fire truck the all clear to continue on its way to go and respond to this other plane that was having some other issue here at the airport. And then almost immediately after, we hear him say, stop, stop, stop to that truck because the plane was coming-- now we know-- 100 miles per hour. So big questions here-- what was visible to the air traffic controller at the moment that they were giving those initial commands? And was there something that happened in between that might have changed things? What did they see, exactly? Again, they didn't give any details on what they have come to find quite yet. But we do know that that is going to be critical to their investigation. And that's some information that they're going to be hoping to get from the FAA and then share that as quickly as they can. And we also talked about this earlier in the show. But I understand, Jarred, that while LaGuardia is open-- again, it is only partially open. And of course, the area where this crash happened is going to be closed off until Friday. So talk us through the impact to people who are trying to fly to or through New York in the next couple of days. Yeah. So we definitely know that there were a number of folks who had to be rerouted to other airports in the area as they were flying to wherever they were going. One thing that was kind of interesting to me is that we got a rental car here at the airport today for our crews, and there were still some available. So it doesn't seem as though everyone tried to find a complete other way out of the airport, out of this region. But there have been notifications from LaGuardia that this incident-- because, again, of this investigation, because the plane is still on the runway-- that there will be ongoing delays and cancelations. And so if anyone is flying in or out of LaGuardia over the next couple of days, they definitely should be checking in with their airlines to make sure that everything is going smoothly.

OK. Jarred Hill, thank you so much.