‘Stop, stop, stop!’: Chilling audio moments before plane collides with truck at LaGuardia

Chilling audio reveals the moments before an arriving airplane collided with an emergency truck on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, killing the pilot and co-pilot and injuring two Port Authority police officers.

Air traffic controllers can be heard giving directions to the firetruck as it was near Runway 4 at the Queens airport around 11:30 p.m. Sunday. The person can be heard quickly instructing the truck to stop multiple times before the audio cuts out.

Here’s what the audio was, with a clip of it below:

“Frontier 4195, stop there please.”
“Stop, stop, stop, stop.”
“Truck one, stop, stop, stop.”
“Stop Truck 1.”
“Stop!“
*Beeping noises*

The Air Canada plane was nearing the end of its landing procedure when it collided with a Port Authority firetruck manned by police officers that was on the runway, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The pilot and co-pilot of the plane died in the collision, two sources told NBC New York.

Two Port Authority police officers were injured and taken to area hospitals, two sources told NBC New York. The two PAPD members — a sergeant and an officer — suffered broken bones in the collision, but were expected to recover.

Flight AC8646, a Jazz Aviation flight operating as Air Canada Express, had taken off from Montréal Sunday evening, according to a Jazz Aviation statement.

Two sources said the plane was travelling about 30 mph at the time it collided with the vehicle on Runway 4. For comparison, when taxiing on the tarmac, planes typically travel about 5 mph.

A Port Authority spokesperson said the Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle was responding to a separate incident at the time of the collision, but no further details were provided.

What caused the collision was not immediately clear. An investigation by the NTSB and FAA is ongoing.