2 LaGuardia air traffic controllers left work an hour early before deadly crash, AP source says

Two air traffic controllers could be fired for leaving the tower at New York's LaGuardia Airport about an hour early on the night that an Air Canada jet smashed into a fire truck crossing the runway, killing both pilots, according to a government official familiar with the investigation.

The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the matter due to the ongoing National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the March 22 crash and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity Friday.

Because the two controllers left work early that night, there were only two people left in the tower to direct an unusual flurry of flights while dealing with an emergency on another plane on the ground. The controllers who left could have provided crucial backup when the tower got busy if they had remained at the airport until the end of their shifts because they were scheduled to be there past when the crash happened, the official said.

The Federal Aviation Administration is pursuing disciplinary action against the two controllers who left early — up to firing the pair, the government official said.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said in a statement the union “is actively discussing these allegations with FAA leadership.”

Experts and retired officials said leaving the airport early when a required break falls at the end of a shift is a common practice nationwide known as an “early shove.” The FAA is also in the midst of negotiating an new contract with the air traffic controllers union that the agency hopes will include an agreement on a new scheduling model.

The FAA said in a statement that the agency “is committed to holding employees accountable, and we will not compromise the safety or efficiency of the national airspace system.”

Tom Linter saw early departures repeatedly during his decades-long career at the FAA that included a stint as a LaGuardia controller before going on to oversee all air traffic control investigations, but he said it shouldn't be allowed to continue.

“None of that excuses the issue about when you get paid for eight hours, you’re supposed to be there for eight hours. Seven and a half doesn’t count,” Linter said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said this amounts to timecard fraud that won't be tolerated.

“The vast majority of air-traffic controllers are great patriots — they show up for work, complete their full shift, and come back and do it all again,” Duffy said in a statement. “But when a small percentage of individuals take advantage of the American taxpayer, unfairly add additional work to their fellow controllers, and impact the airspace — we have no choice but to act."

The Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday that the two controllers are facing disciplinary action after leaving early.

The NTSB declined to comment on the news about the controllers leaving early. The agency expects every organization involved in an investigation to remain silent while experts work to determine what caused the crash and how to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Air Canada and union officials across the industry did not respond to questions.

Right away, investigators had questions about staffing in the tower, but they have also identified a number of other factors that likely contributed to the crash. The official cause won't be clear until the NTSB publishes its final report, likely sometime next year.

The firefighters whose truck collided with the plane heard an air traffic controller say “stop, stop, stop” but didn’t initially know who the warning was for, according to a preliminary report by the NTSB released in April.

Just seconds earlier, a controller had cleared the fire truck to cross the runway, but the truck started moving while warning lights that act as a stop sign for crossing traffic were still lit.

Because the truck lacked a transponder, a surface monitoring system in the control tower was unable to reliably determine its position, “did not predict a potential conflict” with the landing plane and did not generate an audio or visual alert, the April NTSB report said.

After the air traffic controller’s initial stop warning, the fire truck’s turret operator heard the controller say, “Truck 1, stop, stop, stop,” and realized he was telling the truck to halt, the report said. By then, the truck was already on the runway as Air Canada Express Flight 8646 was landing and speeding toward it.

The fire truck was leading a convoy of vehicles, including four other fire trucks, a police car and a stair truck, responding to an emergency involving a strong odor that was making flight attendants feel ill aboard a departing United Airlines jet.

The Air Canada plane, a CRJ900 regional jet from Montreal, was carrying 76 people. Pilots Antoine Forest, 30, and Mackenzie Gunther, 24, were killed. It was the first deadly crash at LaGuardia in 34 years.

In addition, 39 people were taken to hospitals, including six described as seriously injured. The two fire truck crew members recovered at home after being released from the hospital.

A flight attendant still strapped in her seat survived after being thrown onto the tarmac.

LaGuardia was busier than usual the night of the crash because weather-related flight delays pushed the number of arrivals and departures after 10 p.m. to more than double what was scheduled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.

Two air traffic controllers were on duty when the crash happened around 11:45 p.m. That level of staffing is common on the overnight shift that begins at midnight.

Planes were landing every few minutes, with a dozen flights arriving between 11 p.m. and when the crash happened less than 40 minutes later. At the same time, the controllers had to shuffle their duties because of the emergency response to the odor issue on the United plane.

Associated Press writers Chris Weber and Rio Yamat contributed to this story.

FILE - Firefighters and investigators examine the site, Monday, March 23, 2026, where an Air Canada jet came to rest after colliding with a Port Authority firetruck at LaGuardia Airport, after landing Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle after landing in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy, File)

OTTAWA (AP) — Canada’s public broadcaster said Friday it is making an exception to its policy of not labeling specific attacks as terrorism for the 9/11 attacks after coming under fire over a memo restating it.

Like other news outlets including The Associated Press, CBC/Radio-Canada's standards normally don't allow reporters to describe events as terrorist attacks unless they are quoting someone else's words.

But the director of the FBI, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, Republican members of Congress and Canada's Conservative party all criticized the CBC following media reports about a memo reminding journalists of the policy sent to staff ahead of the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Basem Boshra, senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, said in a blog post late Friday afternoon that CBC would make an exception to the rule for the 9/11 attacks.

He said a “leaked excerpt” of its language policy had raised questions that the public broadcaster must now answer.

“We are doing so to remove what has unfortunately (and unintentionally) become an impediment to clarity and public understanding,” he said.

“At the same time, as new acts of politically or ideologically motivated violence occur in our world, we will continue to follow the journalistically sound practice of attributing causes and motivations to officials and experts.”

Canada's Culture Minister Marc Miller praised the move on social media, calling it a “welcome change to what was a piece of pedantic and foolish guidance that caused legitimate anger.”

Boshra’s post was published less than an hour after Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree issued a press release saying the Canadian government “has always recognized 9/11 as the deadliest terrorist attack in history, and we unequivocally condemn terrorism in all its forms.”

In the post, Boshra said CBC News “has never said what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, was not terrorism, as some commentators have stated in recent days. We have reported fully and accurately on the reasons and motivations for those attacks as determined by police, governments and an independent commission. We’ve just made sure to do it with attribution.”

The fracas began after Toronto Sun columnist Warren Kinsella reported on a memo, in which he said CBC News staff were told “do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks.”

That led to a wave of criticism in the United States.

“Any agency in Canada that doesn’t publicly reject this bastardization of history, and an insult to the souls lost during our largest terrorist attack in U.S. history will no longer have friend in this FBI,” FBI Director Kash Patel said an online post late Thursday.

A group of Republican representatives in Congress also posted earlier in the day: “What possible motive could there be for sanitizing the worst terrorist attack on American soil? Care to explain, @Canada?”

On Friday, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra weighed in, sharing Patel’s post and saying the FBI has been responsible or instrumental in disrupting terrorist and violent criminal organizations operating in Canada multiple times this year.

Hoekstra added: “Failure to recognize and confront radical and terrorist ideologies significantly endangers our efforts to establish and harmonize a shared national and economic security partnership.”

CBC spokesperson Kerry Kelly told the The Canadian Press that it was the public broadcaster’s practice to use “extreme caution” in using the words terrorism or terrorist.

She said the memo “was a reminder of the long-standing practice that favors the use of these terms with attribution in our reporting, a practice shared by many of the world’s top journalistic organizations.” Kelly did not provide a copy of the memo.

She pointed to a 2023 blog post in which CBC editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon wrote that the outlet often uses the word terrorist, but with attribution.

“Attribution of the word ‘terrorist’ has been our policy for decades — mirrored by other news organizations such as the BBC, AP, AFP and Reuters, among many others,” Fenlon wrote.

FILE - The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation logo is projected onto a screen on May 29, 2019, in Toronto. (Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press via AP,File)