Air Canada Crash: Runway Incursions Surge

0:00Last Sunday night, an air candidate express flight slammed into a fire truck on Runway 4 and New York's LaGuardia airport, just eight seconds after. Touchdown The Jazz Aviation Jet carried dozens of passengers, but both pilots died on impact with many others hurt. This happened around 11.40 p.m. on March 22nd, and now the National Transportation Safety Board is digging deep into what went wrong. The air traffic controller repeatedly yelled at the truck to stop, but it kept rolling onto the active runway. Turns out, that fire truck had no transponder to ping its location to the tower or trigger alarms, a key missing piece in preventing runway mix-ups. Like this, former controllers are shaken up, calling it every worker's nightmare. Kathy Foxx, who led Canada's Transportation Safety Board and started as a controller, feels for the guy in the tower and hopes the probe uncovers. Layers of fixes to spare future heartbreak, Dennis White, retired after decades on the

1:00job, compares the work to a high-stakes ballet, juggling planes in three dimensions, while short-staffed and buried in overtime. Investigators know multiple failures that night, and Canada's seeing runway incursions climb with over 600 reports last year alone, double. From a decade ago, staffing shortages at big airports mean delays and throttle traffic, but NAF Canada reports progress, licensing over 300 new controllers. Since last year, and training 500 more, experts push for upgrades like vehicle transponders at more spots and pilot alerts for incursions building on systems that already worn against. Mid-air clashes. With aviation safety holding strong here, these steps aim to keep that grim 1978 runway crash in British Columbia the last deadly. One, as ancient history, that's the story for today. Vancouver News Today, driven by AI. I'm Corey with the story.