Port Authority to Add Transponders to Airport Vehicles After Crash

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey announced plans this week to install transponder technology on ground vehicles at LaGuardia, John F. Kennedy and Newark Liberty airports following a deadly collision last month between an Air Canada Express jet and a firefighting truck at LaGuardia.

On March 22, Air Canada Express Flight 8646, arriving from Montreal, struck the Port Authority fire truck while landing on Runway 4 around midnight. The crash killed the two Canadian pilots, Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther, and seriously injured six others, including one flight attendant, three passengers and the two firefighters in the truck. The truck had been responding to a separate emergency elsewhere on the airfield amid heavy air traffic.

A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, released last week, identified the fire truck's lack of a transponder as a key factor. LaGuardia is equipped with an Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model X (ASDE-X) system, which uses radar and transponder data to track aircraft and vehicles and alert air traffic controllers to potential collisions. However, the system did not generate a warning because the truck lacked...