News reporters everywhere are asserting there was no radar on the fire truck and if there “had been” that Air Canada flight AC8646 would not have collided with a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport. Controllers could have told the plane to go around. Yet, the controllers cleared that plane to land on a runway and then cleared the truck to cross that same runway. Mistakes happen. Would radar have helped that situation? Perhaps. Perhaps not.
Was radar necessary to avoid this crash? Absolutely NOT.
HUMAN ATTENTION
There was equipment available to avoid that crash. It’s called human attention. The very thing we are losing with the increase in automation. We are training people to be monkeys. Do what I say because I said so, and don’t question or challenge. Simply because the crosswalk symbol gives me a clearance to cross the street, doesn’t mean it’s okay to walk across that intersection until I look right and left to see if anyone is running the light.
We don’t need more automation, we need people to pay attention. Never in my life did I, or anyone I flew with, EVER move onto a runway, despite being cleared to do so, without first verifying the final was clear. Just because someone says so doesn’t make it right. Trust but verify. Everyone needs to be trained to stop, look, then proceed if clear.
Stop. Look. Clear the Airspace.
An accident is never one event, but a chain. And humans are always the last line of defense. This is not a blame game. This post is to learn from what happened so it doesn’t happen again. It won’t matter if you put radar in every Tower, Plane, Car, or iPhone… if the human loses their situational awareness and jumps because someone said so, but fails to look first before they leap, accidents will continue. Death will continue.
I learned in my ERAU law class that even if a controller gives a pilot a clearance to a new a heading, and the pilot flies into a mountain, the crash is the pilots fault. I do not believe a defense in any situation is, “They told me it was okay.”
Heartfelt prayers are sent to the families of those pilots. They were true heroes for not reacting last minute because they could do nothing but make the situation worse and potentially cause more deaths than their own.
I hope this is a lesson learned for the new generation of pilots to never accept a clearance without verifying safety first. Trust but verify. Look left. Look right. Then proceed onto your runway. Don’t even trust your technology is doing what it’s supposed to do without first verifying.
4 Comments
Hello,
I saw the interview you did with CBC News Andrew Nichols March 24, 2026. Thank you for your direct, common sense interpretation. I had been wondering if anyone was going to address that ‘elephant’ in the room. “The Last Line of Defense”, a part of our instinctive, self survival.
I’m sensing that, with all the advancements to the technology that permeates our lives that we are becoming over dependent on it to administer/oversee all aspects of our daily living.
This is a major red flag for me and I don’t envy those who are tasked with this investigation and the subsequent findings yet to be revealed.
I have been looking, online, for the interview that you did with CBC News. I still have not located it but have found this article of yours, instead. Am salting it away for future reference.
Thank you again, Karlene
Mary, Thank you for your voice of concern and seeing that elephant as well. We are truly becoming dependent at the sake of losing critical thinking skills and perhaps ever acquiring them. Hopefully more people will see that elephant too and realize something needs to be done to go back to the basics. Also, if you can find the interview, please send my way. And thank you for your comment!
Your ERAU law class may only be correct in the US. Elsewhere, it may not be true. This is why the Swiss ATC management personnel were convicted of manslaughter for the Uberlingen midair crash. Also the Italian ATC/airport management personnel and controller were convicted of manslaughter for the Linate airport runway collision. 2 ATC were found negligent in the Cagliari accident. The last one was baffling to me!
Like the midair in DC, had that happened in Europe (especially Italy), someone will definitely be prosecuted. ATC working without pay? Labor law court you go!!
We rarely prosecute anyone for aircraft accidents in the US. That’s probably why it is in the state it is in.
Annon, Thank you for sharing this information! It’s called accountability. Or lack of. And that is the major problem with the US Industry. We don’t prosecute anyone in the airline industry. We make laws that “protect” the bad guys. The very law, AIR21, that is supposed to improve aviation safety making airline and manufacturing employees free to come forward so accidents don’t happen, does NOT allow them to name individuals. It’s people who do the deeds. In my case, it was VP James Graham and SVP Steve Dickson who broke the law, and the CEO Ed Bastian condoned it. What happened to them? Dickson violates federal regulations and federal law and they make him the FAA administrator. James Graham violates federal regulations and Federal law and they make him the CEO of Endeavor. Then Endeavor crashes a plane. Nobody is prosecuted. Graham perjured himself in court. Nothing happened. Unlike the immediate transcripts for this crash, Delta has been able to hide Endeavors from the public. No accountability to that accident. In the US nobody is ever personally accountable. The CEO remains in place despite his knowledge of substandard training and a plethora of near crashes. SMS was designed to mitigate risk. Yet Airline management and the US government alike are increasing risk daily. This case, not enough bodies in the Tower. Training for firefighters? They love to get calls to eliminate their ordinary boring day at an airport. Did they train them with due diligence on looking before they cross a runway? Or, did they train them they had priority? This event will open the eyes for others, as did Tenerife in 1977. But you hit it on the head, the problem with U.S. aviation industry is lack of accountability. A bunch of cowboys doing whatever the hell they want at the expense of our safety. Our laws protect those who management teams who are making the wrong decisions and placing all of us in harms way. Thank you so much for sharing this!! Something needs to change.