Video of the fatal LaGuardia runway collision appears to show the autonomous runway status lights illuminated red as the fire truck entered the runway — a warning system designed to tell vehicles and aircraft not to proceed even if they have a clearance.
That does not settle blame, and the investigation will still have to sort out what air traffic control, the truck crew, and airport procedures each contributed, but it adds a critical detail to a crash that already killed the two pilots of the arriving Air Canada Express jet.
The Air Canada Jazz tragedy at New York LaGuardia late last night has been really tough to think about. The plane collided with a fire truck that was crossing runway four to respond to a United flight that had rejected takeoff and was experiencing fume events.
The United plane hadn’t been able to get assigned back to a gate, and was seeking assistance with stairs get everyone offloaded. But they finally got a gate assigned, and it appears no longer needed help.
While the air traffic controller on duty blamed himself – it’s hard not to, you take responsibility for everyone’s lives in that role – there’s an important point that’s clear from video of the actual impact. Runway lights were telling the fire truck not to enter.
New video of the LGA crash shows the RWSL lights clearly illuminated when the fire trucks start to enter the runway… so the lights that mean “do not enter this runway even if given a clearance” were working, illuminated, and ignored. So I’m not pinning this on ATC, honestly.
— Toby 🛩️ (@303SnowWolf) March 23, 2026
I wasn’t going to embed the crash video when I saw it this morning, but it’s fairly important to understand what happened. You may want to navigate away and not watch.
🚨Chilling surveillance footage has emerged showing the moment Air Canada Flight AC8646 collided with a Port Authority fire truck on the runway at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) last night.
Authorities have confirmed that both pilots were killed in the crash. Dozens of passengers,… pic.twitter.com/wCCGY9kt4o
— aircraftmaintenancengineer (@airmainengineer) March 23, 2026
MCCCANM explains what you’re seeing,
[T]he Runway Entrance Lights (REL) are illuminated when the truck starts moving. …If the lights are on, you’re not supposed to move, even if you have clearance. …To see them, look in the middle of the runway early in the segment. Watch it a few times & you’ll notice there is a line of them extending across the runway.
Just after the event itself, just after midnight, he flagged the runway lights. It’s one of the first things I read about the incident when I woke up.
At some airports, LGA included, they have “Runway Status Lights” (RSL). These are little red lights imbedded in the pavement. If in the pavement where a taxiway crosses a runway, they are known as “Runway Entrance Lights” (REL). If imbedded in the runway ahead of your position for takeoff, they are known as “Takeoff Hold Lights” (THL).
Both sets of lights work autonomously, with no input from ATC. They detect when an aircraft or vehicle is on the runway or is about to be & illuminate red in a line.
If the THLs are red when Tower clears you for takeoff, then you can’t takeoff. The system thinks something is there or is about to be there that Tower may not be aware of. It can detect a jet landing on a crossing runway about 1 mile from touchdown & prevent the jet trying to takeoff from going, even if Tower has cleared them to.
The RELs light up in a similar way, to prevent you from crossing a runway that either has traffic on it or is about to. If Tower has cleared you to cross the runway but the RELs are illuminated, you can’t go.
Illumination of RSL lights takes precedence over ATC instructions…but *both* conditions must be satisfied. You must have permission to cross / takeoff & the lights must be extinguished.
To be clear, he wasn’t blaming the fire truck. And this doesn’t absolve air traffic control, either. There’s going to be an investigation, we will learn what happened, and hopefully there will be recommendations that will make air travel safer. That’s how aviation became safe – by learning from each incident. And incidents are rare now, where it’s pretty much only long tail events that create problems (although some risks are foreseeable – and predicted – like what happened last year to American 5342 or the FAA’s badly managed and understaffed air traffic organization).
Why were the lights ignored? Beats me as I am not an expert and neither is anybody who will comment after me. I will wait for official reporting on the matter.
Thanks Gary for posing the question, but let’s be clear, there are not going to be answers here.
I tell you what. Having flown into LGA hundreds of times I would never assume anything is safe and I’d have the PM watch the crossing traffic like a hawk and go around if anything was unsafe. Aircraft on the tower frequency would have heard tower clear the fire truck across the runway they I was landing on so again, I’d go around. No excuse for the final
Line of safety to fail…that line is the pilots.
Drew, at night in the rain and the right angle the flashing lites of the truck may well have appeared to not be about to cross the runway when viewed from short final. Obviously it only did seconds before the impact well after touchdown …..the pilots were on the tower frequency and the truck may have been on ground.control … its way to early to point fingers…. Unless you are Trump and there was a female or a person of color on either the truck, tower or airplane… than you could blame DEI no matter the facts