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
Horrific.
It doesn’t really matter what ATC said the Fire Truck has a clear visual of the runway and shouldn’t be going full speed ahead across an active runway. The Fire Truck was in the best position to avoid this accident. Will be interesting to see if the driver was a DEI hire like the army pilot that collided with the AA jet near DCA.
for all of our friends on the right, you currently have a trifecta – total control of spending
the digital technology to prevent this accident and the dca accident is readily available
what are you going to do about it? will you put forward legislation untied to any political agenda?
will you really put america first?
This reminds me of the July 1 2002 collision of two planes over Europe where, inside one cockpit, TCAS told pilots to pull up while the ATC was telling them to dive.
Resulting tragedy resulted in the every pilot being trained to ALWAYS LISTEN TO TCAS.
Condolences to the families of the two AC pilots,
I saw someone above saying the pilots “should” have gone around. Not a chance, amigo. Zero. Why? There were already on the ground, rolling out and had neither time, distance or airspeed to get airborne again. The only thing they “MIGHT” have been able to do is to turn somewhat to reduce the impact and I’m not even sure that would have been helpful or possible. East coast runways at night are frequently slick with moisture. Signed – a 737 Captain
IMO, you likely have someone very excited about being in a ‘true’ emergency situation… Finally… And becoming disoriented. It is also interesting that the other emergency vehicles who were following them slowed down.
He makes his own rules. Why wouldn’t they.
More cash is flown out of the country from MSP than any other airport in the country, according to data in Minnesota’s legislative fraud committee hearing..
Trace the money. Anything else: yawn.
@Drew Simmons — I would not blame the deceased pilots here. Visibility was bad (dense mist/rain), so weather is an underlying issue here. ATC and fire truck more at fault, directly, since, yes, apparently, they did mess up here. United failing to maintain its aircraft, indirectly (that was the reason for the trucks being out in the first place). And, sure, systemic issues (FAA/ATC staffing, equipment, etc.) Yet, even if everything was fully funded, accidents still happen.
@Manhattan West (EWR) — Nice gatekeeping. Nah, we come here for ‘hot takes’ so if you can’t handle the heat, get outta the kitchen, friend. Speaking of Newark, they too had a ground stop on Monday thanks to an issue in their tower. Oof. NYC can’t catch a break.
You would think that – at the minimum – the driver of that fire vehicle would look side to side before crossing. They are supposed to. Clearly, he just blew out there without so much as a pause. The aircraft was right,, freaking, there! No way he could have missed that. So, lights aside, I wouldn’t want to be that firefighter explaining to the NTSB why I singlehandedly crashed an aircraft and killed people.
From what I saw, heard and read, the pilots were blameless. It is IFR weather. The weather was 600-800 broken with a solid layer above that. Although the visibility was greater than 2 miles, the rain will obscure a clear vision of the runway. So, they were IFR most of the time. They touched down within the touchdown zone (approx 1500 feet) and the collision point was not that far from the TDZ. They were cleared for the approach and cleared to land. That means, the runway is theirs. ATC, the aircraft and the fire truck were on two different frequencies so the pilots never heard the fire truck’s “clearance”. Does this sound a bit like KDCA? Now, one person noted that he would have told the pilot monitoring to watch out. In my 28 years and 17,000+ hours as Part 121 pilot instructor, I can assure you that, having been cleared to land AND in IFR weather, the pilot monitoring was watching the aircraft until they broke out and had a clear and unobstructed view of the runway. They had neither. Tell me if YOU can see a fire truck (which was NOT speeding) on a wet, slick covered in all sorts of blinking and steady lights runway? You can’t see them in a car under those conditions. My pilots are taught, and I beat it into their heads…before you cross or line up on an active runway..EVERY PERSON in the cockpit will look to the left and to the right..and confirm..”Runway is clear…approach is clear.” OUT LOUD! The fire truck SHOULD have done the same. The ATC controller should have said to the fire truck to either HOLD at the hold short line OR “Cross runway XX without delay. Aircraft on XX mile final.” and cautioned the pilots of the “intruder” on their “cleared to land” runway. One key factor is…again..and JUST LIKE KDCA..two different frequencies and the pilots had NO CLUE. And to the trolls who throw politics into the equation, BOTH parties are to blame. Congress has kicked the FAA funding can down the road for years. The airlines PAY (through the passengers ticket prices) various fees for this funding. General aviation pays these fees through an exorbitant fuel tax on every gallon of AVGAS or JET-A they burn. So, privatizing the FAA/ATC is NOT the answer. The answer is for the voters to INSIST that their congressional representatives fund the FAA/DOT with these fees and quit snatching bits and pieces away to fund their agenda and fully fund as intended. End of my epistle.
ATC gave him clearance but the Firetruck still had a red light…..
How did the the ATC know he was infringing on the runway? Visual or screen?
crickets from the ‘right’ readers who were out in force on the ice deployment thread……
navcanada can solve our entire airspace problem for $30B
google the following and the first result should be the relevant article
fliegerfaust nav-canada-tower-tech-faa-atc-overhaul
this is a layup for the political right – dear leader has dementia and is not long for this earth – time to start jockeying for position in the aftermath – who is going to take the easiest win in congressional history?
@Win Whitmire
Kudos to you. Great post.
The lights were ignored because the fire truck driver doesn’t have enough braincells. All there is to it and you know it.
@Win Whitmire. Agree excellent post.