The controller was working both Tower and Ground frequencies at the time of the collision. At a busy airport like LaGuardia, that’s incredibly unsafe, IMO. Something grabbing his attention on Ground distracted him from this developing situation on his Tower responsibilities, and that’s all it took. He tried to then stop it, but it was too late.
He’s going to live with what happened for the rest of his life. I feel deeply sad for him. It’s not even really his fault. He was put in a situation where any human is likely to fail sooner or later.
The US’s air infrastructure (along with a lot of other infrastructure) has been going downhill since the Reagan administration. The US needs a 2-3x investment in the FAA 10 years or so ago.
I haven’t travelled to the US since Feb 2020, and I’m not going to (even for work) for multiple reasons at this point: the continued deterioration of the FAA’s systems is one major one.
The controller was working both Tower and Ground frequencies at the time of the collision. At a busy airport like LaGuardia, that’s incredibly unsafe, IMO. Something grabbing his attention on Ground distracted him from this developing situation on his Tower responsibilities, and that’s all it took. He tried to then stop it, but it was too late.
He’s going to live with what happened for the rest of his life. I feel deeply sad for him. It’s not even really his fault. He was put in a situation where any human is likely to fail sooner or later.
The US’s air infrastructure (along with a lot of other infrastructure) has been going downhill since the Reagan administration. The US needs a 2-3x investment in the FAA 10 years or so ago.
I haven’t travelled to the US since Feb 2020, and I’m not going to (even for work) for multiple reasons at this point: the continued deterioration of the FAA’s systems is one major one.