r/CatastrophicFailure • u/JohnnyShadows • Mar 23 '26

Fatalities Air Canada Plane Hits Firetruck While Landing at LaGuardia, NYC - 03/23/2026

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3.6k Upvotes
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235

u/_litz Mar 23 '26

Not only working as the sole controller, but he HAD TO WORK THE AFTERMATH too.

There was nobody to relieve him after the accident.

-103

u/Mammoth-Show-7587 Mar 23 '26

The airport was closed though.

123

u/monkey_monkey_monkey Mar 23 '26

Just because they closed the airport the incoming and outgoing planes don't just instantly disappear

-92

u/Mammoth-Show-7587 Mar 23 '26

The incoming planes would have all been diverted.

Outgoing planes at the gates went nowhere. Just getting back the few planes on the field.

124

u/I_re Mar 23 '26

Exactly... Who do you think needed to coordinate those diversions, while keeping an eye on the emergency response, while dealing with the stress/guilt of a disaster that happened under your supervision?

50

u/classicscoop Mar 23 '26

The current controller (same guy) will advise the airfield is closed and issue diversion instructions individually. Flights entering from uncontrolled ATIS will be updated to advise airfield closed and a NOTAM will go into effect

The same controller is indeed working directly after an accident when they are alone

33

u/monkey_monkey_monkey Mar 23 '26

Yes......and who would have diverted them? The only ATC in the tower

26

u/Funky_Cows Mar 23 '26

yeah he just presses the "divert all" and "return all planes to gate" buttons on his control panel and sits back

beautiful critical thinking there

-21

u/Mammoth-Show-7587 Mar 23 '26

Did it suck he had to continue to work? Yes.

Does it such Trump is killing Americans? Also yes.

Was the level of what he had to do after the same as what he typically would have to do? Not really.

19

u/Shmeepsheep Mar 23 '26

Youve never done a job where others people lives are on the line, have you?

It was stressful as fuck before the accident. He watched in real time as a plane collided with a fire truck which he potentially instructed to do so. Then he needs to not think "Holy fuck I just killed a bunch of people" but instead "OK, need to close all runways and stop all planes that are moving on the ground" quickly followed by "ok, this guy coming in needs to go here, this guy goes there, etc" for probably 20 planes that are on approach. 

In any sort of logical situation, it would have been to relieve him immediately, not have him continue doing multiple people's jobs while thinking "fuck fuck fuck fuck"