'Stop, Stop': Chilling cockpit audio reveals final minutes before deadly LaGuardia crash

At a press briefing led by National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy, investigators shared initial findings from the cockpit voice recorder, including critical moments leading up to the collision at LaGuardia airport. Homendy said the agency has ‘a lot of investigative information to share today’, including insights from the final three minutes of cockpit audio. Senior aviation investigator Doug Brazy outlined a detailed sequence of events, highlighting communication breakdowns and timing issues.

According to Brazy, after the Air Canada aircraft lowered its landing gear, a transmission requesting permission for a fire truck to cross the runway came in, but it was ‘stepped on by another transmission’. The truck later received clearance to cross.

Final 10 seconds before impact

• 10 seconds - An electronic "10" call out was heard
• 9 seconds - The tower instructed truck one to stop
• 8 seconds - A sound consistent with the aircraft's landing gear touching down on the runway
• 6 seconds - Pilot transfer of controls from one pilot to the other
• 4 seconds - Tower again instructs the truck to stop moving
• 0 seconds - Recording ends

Homendy stressed the need for modernisation, saying the air traffic control system requires an ‘upgrade’. “Controllers should have all the information and the tools to do their job,” she said. “You have to have information on the ground movements, whether that's aircraft or vehicles, this is 2026.” She described the current system as 'old'. The briefing walked through a minute-by-minute reconstruction of the final moments before the crash, based on cockpit recordings and tower communications.

Here's a full timeline of events before the deadly crash

• 3 minutes, 7 seconds - Air Canada pilots are instructed to contact LaGuardia tower
• 2 minutes, 45 seconds - Aircraft lowers its landing gear
• 2 minutes, 22 seconds - Flight crew checks in with LaGuardia tower
• 2 minutes, 17 seconds - Tower clears plane to land on runway 4
• 1 minutes, 12 seconds - Flight crew confirms landing checklist complete
• 1 minute, 3 seconds - Airport vehicle makes transmission to the tower, but transmission was "stepped on" by another unidentified radio transmission
• 54 seconds - Flight crew acknowledges plane was 500 feet (152m) above the ground and on a stable approach
• 40 seconds - LaGuardia tower asks which vehicle needed to cross a runway
• 28 seconds - Truck 1 makes radio transmission to the tower
• 25 seconds - Truck 1 requests to cross runway 4
• 20 seconds - Tower clears Truck 1 to cross runway 4
• 9 seconds - Tower instructs Truck 1 to stop
• 8 seconds - Sound consistent with airplane landing
• 4 seconds - Tower again tells Truck 1 to stop moving
• 0 seconds - Recording ends

What is the current status of LaGuardia airport?

LaGuardia Airport is open for international and domestic flights but there are some changes following Sunday's crash.

Runway 4 at LaGuardia, where the crash happened is ‘closed nightly’ from 03:00 GMT (10:00 PM EST) to 11:00 GMT (6:00 AM EST), according to an advisory by the Federal Aviation Administration. The closure is in effect until March 27, the advisory says.