This is the moment an air traffic controller admitted he ‘messed up’ after a plane crashed into a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
Flight 8646 smashed into the port authority vehicle as it was barreling down the runway at 30mph just before 11.40pm.
The pilot and co-pilot died in the crash, which sheared the nose of the Jazz Aviation jet operated on behalf of Air Canada off.
The controller, who instructs pilots on how to land safely, was moments before responding to a request to cross the runway by ‘Truck One’.
Audio captured by LiveATC.net showed the worker saying: ‘Just stop there, please. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Truck one, stop. Stop, Truck one.’
The controller, who appeared to be working ground and directing aircraft, then instructed an incoming flight to go around the runway.
He tells the Air Canada flight to ‘hold position’, adding: ‘I know you can’t move. The vehicles are responding to you now.’
Another voice says ‘man, that wasn’t good to watch’, before the controller replies: ‘I know, I was here. I tried to reach out to ’em…
‘We were dealing with an emergency earlier and I messed up.’
The other worker replied: ‘No man, you did the best you could.’
Around 72 passengers and four crew members were on board Flight 8646, which was travelling from Montreal to LaGuardia.
It was going down the runway at 131mph, according to flight-tracker website, FlightRadar24.
Port Authority officials confirmed the ‘Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle’ was en route to a ‘seperate incident’.
The airline cautioned that the passenger manifest is ‘subject to confirmation’.
There will be no flights into or out of LaGuardia Airport today 2pm local time (6pm UK time), with 400 journeys cancelled so far.
The travel hub sees nearly 900 departures and arrivels every day.
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