AC Jazz

I'm sure most of you have heard of the tragic event that unraveled at LaGuardia airport in New York this past week. 

On Sunday March 23, an Air Canada jet was making its final decent from Montreal to New York, and was coming in for a landing. At the same time, a fire truck was attempting to attend to another emergency case across the airport and requested permission to cross the runway. ATC gave the all clear for the fire truck to cross. The fire truck began its crossing when the AC flight began to land and was going at over 100mph. The pilots slammed on the brakes and did their utmost best, but unfortunately the jet slammed into the fire truck, and ultimately taking the life of the 2 young pilots.

One of the flight attendants was flung onto the runway, still strapped in her seat, alive but injured. The rest of the passengers suffered anywhere from minor to a handful of critical injuries. When passengers did not hear any clearance from the flight deck, they ultimately attempted to escape the plane and helped each other along the way.

This is the first fatal incident at LaGuardia in over 30 years, and the first involving an aircraft with a fire truck. 

Many questions are being asked, whose fault was it and what can be done to make air travel safe again. This is very early into the investigation and really, we shouldn't be pointing fingers at anyone. Except the government, because ultimately everything is really their fault. 

Air traffic controllers (ATC) have one of the most stressful jobs on the planet. It is probably one of the most strict that I have heard. Yes, you don't need a degree to be an ATC, but you still need to study the handbook and take a course/write the test as the basis. They are also very selective on who they hire. They just don't hire anyone. They have to hire the best at coordination, at memory and critical thinking. And they don't hire anyone after a certain age. They are super strict with breaks and how many hours one works. It's no wonder they get paid very well - but the stakes are high.

I remember in the beginning of my nursing career (or just before I began it), I was really doubting myself if I would be a good nurse. I decided to look at different avenues, one of which was being an ATC. I've always loved planes growing up (thanks to my dad) and one of my first dream jobs as a kid was to be a pilot (my first was a bus driver....all thanks to the movie Speed). I even made a fake ID tag when I was in grade 5, with my status as captain. I wanted to fly the 747 if I became a pilot. But then I got glasses, so my pilot career was pretty much over at that point. 

But ATC? It sounded interesting. As I read more into it and thought about taking the course, I held myself back. This was probably worse than dealing in health care because one wrong move, and I could send hundreds of people to their deaths. That's not something you can just recover from. One wrong move, and your career would end.  

The thought of how many lives could be lost in one wrong move really convinced me that I couldn't handle that guilt over my head if it were to happen. Eventually my nursing career took off and I never really looked back at returning to the ATC journey. 

After hearing the ATC recording, I felt heartbroken, not just for the young lives lost, but also for the ATC team who were dealing with another emergency and trying to resolve that, the guilt that they felt when the crash happened. Obviously no one wants a crash to happen. But now the question is, how overworked are these ATCs? 

When Trump took over, one of things he mentioned was to reduce the amount of ATCs around the nation. Fire the ones who didn't speak English well. Don't hire any more because they were expensive. So now you have the current ATCs who are overworked, burnt out, or retiring and no one is replacing. Between October 2025 to January 2026, there have been 498 runway incursions reported at US airports. 498! What?! 

Just like any incident, there's always a scapegoat. The question is, who will it be this time? Is it the fire truck driver error? ATC? The pilots? And sadly, they always blame ATC or the pilots for errors. It's always 'human error'. It's never a systemic problem or a government problem. But that's the thing, everything always starts from the government. 

While we still digest this tragedy, and the investigation continues, I just hope people realize that the 2 pilots who lost their lives did so with heroism. They lost their lives, so that their passengers and crew would live. That's the ultimate sacrifice. 

Rest in peace captain Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther.