NTSB on LaGuardia Crash Investigation: “We’re here to prevent this from reoccurring”

UPDATE MARCH 24, 2026 2 P.M.:

Jennifer Homendy from the NTSB once again addressed the public in a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

Homendy said "we still need to determine what happened at shift change, we have questions about who was in the tower..." and stated that the standard operating procedure at LaGuardia is to have only two air traffic control officers on duty on the midnight shift and they are expected to perform several job duties.

"We're here to prevent this from happening again and from reoccurring," Homendy said.

Data obtained from the Cockpit Voice Recorder totaled more than 25 hours of audio across four different channels and the Flight Data Recorder contained more than 80 hours of data over more than 400 perimeters, according to the National Transportation Safety Board officials.

NTSB Investigator Doug Brazy read a "summary of events captured on the Cockpit Voice Recorder during the final three minutes of the recording.

• 3minutes;7seconds: The approach controller tells the pilots to contact LaGuardia Tower.
•  2minutes;45seconds: Flight crew lowered the landing gear.
• 2minutes;22seconds: Flight crew checked in with the LaGuardia Tower.
• 2mintues;17seconds: LaGuardia Tower cleared the plane to land on Runway 4 and advised that they were 'number two' for landing.
• 1minute;52seconds: The flight crew set the flaps to 30 degrees.
• 1minute;33seconds: The flight crew set the flaps to 45 degrees.
• 1minute;26seconds: An alert system sent out a signal that the airplane was 1,000 feet above the ground.
• 1minute;12seconds: The flight crew confirmed the landing checklist was complete.
• 1minute;3seconds: An airport vehicle made a radio transmission was sent to the tower, but it was "STEPPED ON" by another radio transmission (the source of which hasn't been identified)
• 54seconds: The flight crew acknowledged the airplane was 500 feet above the ground and "at a stable approach."
• 40seconds: The LaGuardia Tower asked "which vehicle needed to cross a runway?"
•   28seconds: Truck 1 made a transmission to the tower.
• 26seconds: The tower acknowledged the radio transmission.
• 25seconds:  Truck 1 requested to cross Runway 4 at Taxiway Delta.
• 20seconds: The tower cleared Truck 1 and Company to cross Runway 4 at Taxiway Delta.
• 19seconds: A signal sent from the alert system indicated the plane was 100 feet above the ground.
• 17seconds: Truck 1 "read back the runway crossing clearance."
• 14seconds: A signal was sent indicating the plane was 50 feet above the ground.
• 12seconds: A signal was sent indicating the plane was 30 feet above the ground. AT THE SAME TIME: Tower instructed a Frontier Airline plane to "hold position."
• 11seconds: A signal was sent indicating the plane was 20 feet above the ground.
• 10seconds: A signal was sent indicating the plane was 10 feet above the ground.
• 9seconds: Tower instructed Truck 1 to stop.
• 8seconds: "Sound consistent with the plane's landing gear touching down on the runway"
• 6seconds: There was a "Pilot transfer of controls from one pilot to the other."
• 4seconds: The tower "again, instructed Truck 1 to stop."
• 0seconds: RECORDING ENDS

Officials provided an update Monday afternoon to the fatal plane crash at LaGuardia late Sunday night that took the lives of two pilots and injured more than 40 others.

United States Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy was joined at the airport by Bryan Bedford the Administrator of the FAA, Mayor of NYC Zohran Mamdani, and Governor Kathy Hochul along with other airport officials to provide a public update following the crash.

Duffy reiterated the facts of the crash that happened at 11:45 p.m. on Sunday, March 22, when the CJR900 plane operated by Air Canada Express and Jazz was flying in from Montreal and collided with a Port Authority firetruck.

Radio-Canada sources identified the pilots who died in the crash as Antoine Forest from Coteau-du-Lac, Que., and MacKenzie Gunther, described as "two young men at the start of their careers," by the FAA.

Surveillance footage of the crash is floating around online, along with the audio from the controller tower moments before the collision.

The plane was carrying 72 passengers and four crew members. Duffy said more than 40 people were sent to the hospital, but by the time of the press conference Monday afternoon "several had been released."

"As it has been reported, the two pilots of the aircraft passed away in the crash last night," Duffy said. "I do want to note: we send our deepest condolences to their families."

The two people inside the firetruck were also sent to the hospital.

The NTSB provided their own independent update laying out the steps of the investigation into the cause of the crash- beginning with a safety inspection of the scene.

Jennifer Homendy from the NTSB say the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) was intact and being examined in Washington. However, the NTSB said they could not provide much data, including information about tower staffing.

"The NTSB deals in facts. We don't speculate."

The NTSB is expected to provide another update Tuesday.