LaGuardia pilots raised safety alarms months before deadly runway crash

Pilot safety concerns about New York’s LaGuardia airport were filed to aviation officials months before Sunday’s collision between an airplane and a firetruck left two pilots dead and 41 other people hospitalized.

According to the aviation safety reporting system administered by the US space agency Nasa, a pilot using the airport in the summer wrote, “Please do something,” after air traffic controllers failed to provide appropriate guidance about multiple nearby aircraft.

“The pace of operations is building in LGA,” they wrote, referring to the New York City airport, one of the busiest in the US. “The controllers are pushing the line.”

In a reference to the January 2025 mid-air collision over the Potomac River in Washington DC that killed more than 60 people, they said: “On thunderstorm days, LGA is starting to feel like [Ronald Reagan National airport] did before the accident there.”

The warning, first reported by CNN, showed that the pilot of the aircraft was concerned that LaGuardia’s control tower initiated a takeoff clearance for an aircraft when their plane was “only 300 feet high on final” approach on a different runway – and the departing plane had hesitated initiating its takeoff run.

“I think he or she thought twice before starting their takeoff roll,” the pilot of the aircraft said. The pilot mentioned how thick, smoky haze from wildfires in Canada at the time as well as a possible helicopter in the area had convinced him it was “safer to continue the approach and land [about] 10 seconds after the departing aircraft crossed our path”.

Otherwise, the pilot added, he would have been left “suddenly going around and trusting that the helicopter was not near the departure end of 22”, with the number referring to a runway.

The pilot concluded: “the [air traffic control] guidance … does not seem to give guidance on exactly how close aircraft in this situation can get.”

“Based on today’s and close calls I have seen over the years for [runways at the Philadelphia and Newark international airports], it seems to be a [judgment] call by the local controller.”

They also said that a runway lighting system had been turned off. In another report since January 2025, a pilot said their aircraft had been cleared to cross a runway – but crossing “we noticed an aircraft we thought was landing at [runway] 31C seemingly headed for us”.

Air traffic control “should have sent the aircraft around”, they said.

Nasa’s Aviation Safety Reporting System has received dozens of anonymous pilot complaints about safety concerns at the smallest of New York’s three local airports.

The reports come as investigators are looking into the collision of a landing Air Canada Express flight 646 from Montreal that collided with an airport fire truck that had been cleared to cross the runway, leading to the deaths of pilots MacKenzie Gunther and Antoine Forest as well as injuries to dozens more.

After the air traffic controller cleared the fire truck, which was responding to a plane that had reported difficulties, the controller then tried to stop it from crossing. He could later be heard saying on a recording that he had been “dealing with an emergency earlier” and that he “messed up”.

The crash has raised fears that operations at US airports are under extreme stress. Airports have been dealing with a shortage of air traffic controllers, exacerbated by brutal federal government personnel cuts by Donald Trump’s administration at the start of his second presidency.

Airports have also grappled with ageing equipment and a shortage of security screeners owing to a partial government shutdown since mid-February, which has caused long security lines and frustration among travelers.

Federal investigators said late on Monday it was too soon to answer many questions about Sunday’s deadly accident but promised more information would be released Tuesday.

Jennifer Homendy, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) chair whose agency is investigating Sunday’s crash, said investigators would analyze the involved airplane’s cockpit and flight data recorders, which were recovered from the wreck undamaged.

She said the runway where the crash happened was likely to be closed for days as investigators sift through a “tremendous amount of debris”.

Homendy also said that an NTSB investigator sent to LaGuardia on Monday was delayed for three hours by security lines in Houston. The Trump administration has sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to many US airports to help with long pre-security lines.

“Our air traffic control specialist, who was in line … for three hours, until we called … to beg, to see if we can get her through, so we can get her here.

“So it’s been a really big challenge to get the entire team here, and they’re still arriving as we speak.”

Hundreds of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents have called in sick or quit their jobs rather than be forced to work without pay amid the shutdown. The shutdown stems from the US Senate not funding the TSA’s parent agency over a disagreement over immigration enforcement reforms.

Sean Duffy, the US transportation secretary, on Monday declined to say how many controllers were on duty at LaGuardia when Sunday’s crash happened, deferring instead to the ongoing NTSB investigation.

But he denied rumors that the tower had only one controller on duty. He said LaGuardia was “very well staffed”, with 33 certified controllers and more in training. He said the goal was to have 37 on staff.

Sunday’s incident was not the only collision at LaGuardia in recent months. In October, two Delta jets collided on a taxiway, sending one person to a hospital.

In July, a co-pilot reported a similar near-collision after controllers said a plane was cleared to cross the runway even though another aircraft was landing at the same time.

“Ground control issued a stop command just in time,” the report entry said, according to CNN.