‘I feel it in my bones’: Longtime air traffic controller on N.Y. plane crash

Two pilots are dead and dozens are injured after an Air Canada jet collided with a vehicle at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. CTV’s Austin Lee has the latest.

Reaction is pouring in following an Air Canada passenger plane crash at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday night that left two pilots dead and injured dozens.

The crash happened shortly after 11:30 p.m. as the Air Canada Express carrier Jazz Aviation touched down in New York after a trip from Montreal’s Trudeau International Airport.

For retired air traffic controller Dennis Wyche, it’s an incident he says hits close to home.

“A tragedy that happens like this, it’s just unreal,” Wyche said.

“I can’t imagine how all the people affected by this accident not only in the aircraft, but around and in the supporting systems are affected by it. It’s really sad.”

Wyche spent 35 years in air traffic control, including 20 years as an air traffic controller, about eight years as an instructor, and roughly seven years as a systems specialist.

He says hearing the recorded conversation from air traffic control at LaGuardia Airport sent a chill down his spine.

“I feel it in my bones. I think every air traffic controller who hears a recording feels it in their bones,” he said. “They know that on any day, that could happen and your job is to prevent that from happening all the time.”

• ‘I messed up’: Read the transcript from the N.Y. plane collision

Plane crashes are rare, and Wyche says for a tragedy like this to happen, a series of mistakes must line up perfectly.

“The system is not just the air traffic controller. It’s not just the pilot. It’s everyone working together. It’s the mechanic, it’s the gate agent, it’s the people ensuring passengers getting on the plane are safe,” Wyche said.

“Everything has to work together and every small thing that happens could be an error… I don’t know that there are more incidents or accidents than there have been in the past. I know that they’re widely reported. I believe the system is still a very, very safe system.”

The Federal Aviation Administration is now investigating the crash to determine every contributing factor leading up to the collision.

“They will go over everything. They will go over the flight logs, they will go over the recordings… every system that we have recording the event will be analyzed,” Wyche said.

“They will find whatever piece of the puzzle contributed to the accident and there will be, probably, a report in a year or two years that has every single thing that happened that contributed as a factor and then we can take that information to make the system safer.”

‘It’s heartbreaking’: Travellers say tragedy top of mind

The ripple effect of the crash was felt at some major Canadian airports, including Toronto’s Pearson Airport and the Trudeau International Airport, as LaGuardia remained closed for nearly 15 hours.

Dozens of flights to and from Toronto and Montreal were called off or delayed.

The impact was not nearly as severe at the Ottawa International Airport, but the crash was still top of mind for travellers flying out of the nation’s capital.

“My sister is a flight attendant with Air Canada. She’s been flying for 38 years. So, she was the first message I sent,” said Debra Christmas.

“It’s heartbreaking. When you travel frequently, in spite of all the wonderful statistics, you don’t want to think about that, but you do, because it could have been you on that plane. It’s devastating.”

Most travellers say these types of rare incidents will not change their flying habits.

“It’s important for us to learn what happened and try to avoid it in the future but air travel is here to stay. It’s something that we depend on,” said Mark Sabry whose wife was flying to Egypt on Monday.

“My condolences to everyone who has been affected, of course, it’s a tragic thing. I hope the investigation will yield some tangible results and if we need to amend some policies to make sure this does not happen again, that would be good.”

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is also sending investigators to New York City.

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