PRIOR EMERGENCY
Air traffic controllers make the decisions about when planes can land and take off, and when ground vehicles can enter runways.
The controller who made the call for Air Canada flight 8646 to land had been trying to find a gate for a United Airlines flight that complained of a bad odor, according to a recording available on liveatc.net.
The United pilots decided not to fly and declared an emergency over the odor that had sickened flight attendants.
Fire trucks that had appeared to have been cleared by the same controller to cross Runway 4 at the airport were headed to the United flight as the Air Canada Express CRJ-900 jet operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation landed with 72 passengers and four crew.
“Stop, truck one, stop,” the controller said, shortly after approving passage across the runway. The arriving plane then hit the fire truck.
According to separate audio posted by liveatc.net, an unidentified controller who appears to be the one involved in the crash, told another pilot after the collision that he had been dealing with an emergency earlier.
“I messed up,” he said in a shaken voice.
The pilot of the other plane, which had seen the crash, responded “Nah man, you did the best you could.” The pilot had said the earlier incident “wasn’t good to watch”.