‘I messed up:’ Chilling audio captures air traffic control conversation before, after LaGuardia crash

Chilling audio reveals the moments before and after 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 Air Canada flight, then the firetruck as they neared Runway 4 at the Queens airport around 11:30 p.m. Sunday. A person is heard quickly instructing the truck to stop multiple times before the audio cuts out. When it comes back, someone indicates they “messed up.”

Here’s a look at the transcript:

“Yeah, I know I was here,” an individual is heard saying. “I tried to reach out to my stuff, and we were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.” 

• 1:35: 2384 is declaring an emergency. Flight Attendants in the back are feeling ill because of the odor. We will need to go into any available gates at this time. 
• 1:55: Do you guys have any gate for United? Because now it’s declaring an emergency, they want to get out. 
• 3:04: Hey, I’ll say it again, LaGuardia. Now that United says he needs a gate, but so now he’s declaring an emergency, but the ramp doesn’t have a gate for him. 
• 3:19: We can get a sand truck if you need them to get off the plane. 
• 3:22: Okay, yeah, yeah, do that just in case they want to come off. 
• 3:35: The ramp doesn’t have a gate for you yet, but I’m trying to get in touch with the Port Authority to see if they have something.
• 3:43: And the fire trucks are over there. They’re gonna bring a stair up, just in case you guys do want to evacuate. Let me know if you do. 
• 3:48: Yeah, we prefer to wait on a gate. But, I mean, again, we only got so much time here because there’s still a bit of an odor in the back of the airplane.
• 6:25: 2384, Do you have a gate available at this time? Otherwise we will be probably requesting gears here. 
• 6:31: Give me one second. 
• 6:45: Emergency vehicles calling on ground, or are you calling on tower?
• 7:00: 2384 is cleared in lane eight for 41. 
• 7:03: 2384, proceed to ramp. 
• 7:05: Proceed in. 
• 7:10: Truck 1.
• 7:17: Truck 1, stop. 
• 7:20: (Garbled)
• 9:30: Runway 3000, go to approach 2020 now. 
• 10:16: We’re holding here.
• 10:17: Alright, there’s an incident on the field.
• 10:19: Yeah, we saw it, man. 
• 11:42: Call us back at 10 minutes. There’s incident on the field. The airport’s closed right now.
• 18:08: We’re not moving  aircraft right now, all right. when I have more for you, I will reach out. I don’t know, just call the tower and we’ll figure it out. This could have been a big incident. 
• 25:22: I got the word that we’re gonna be close for a little while. If you want to prepare to return to the ramp, let me know.
• 25:26: Yeah, we got stuff in progress that’s for that, man. That was…that wasn’t good to watch.
• 25:31: Yeah, I know I was here. I tried to reach out to my stuff, and we were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up. 
• 25:37: No, man, you did the best you could.