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Investigators are working to determine the cause of a crash between a plane and a fire truck at New York's LaGuardia Airport Sunday night. The pilot and co-pilot were killed, and 41 passengers were injured. Reporter Steve Kastenbaum has more.
STEVE KASTENBAUM, BYLINE: While some federal investigators arrived on-site within a few hours of the crash, long lines at TSA security checkpoints across the country caused delays in getting the entire team to LaGuardia Airport.
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JENNIFER HOMENDY: Our air traffic control specialist, who was in line with TSA for three hours until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through so we can get her here.
KASTENBAUM: That's National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy.
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HOMENDY: So it's been a really big challenge to get the entire team here.
KASTENBAUM: She provided details about the events that led up to the crash, but she cautioned against reaching a quick conclusion. A nearby video camera captured the crash. Just seconds after the plane touched down, the truck entered the runway directly in front of the oncoming regional jet. An air traffic controller gave the driver permission to cross the runway and then quickly reversed themself, saying stop several times. When the Air Canada Express flight slammed into the airport fire truck, debris spread out over a wide area. Homendy said that the runway, one of two at LaGuardia, won't reopen soon.
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HOMENDY: That's all evidence, and we need to document that first. Then we need to collect some of that evidence. Then we get to that. It's going to be days.
KASTENBAUM: That follows a 12-hour closure of the entire facility that caused many flights to be canceled at one of the busiest airports in the nation. Mark and Karen Quintana from Loveland, Colorado, showed up four hours early for their flight, only to learn that they weren't going anywhere for a while.
MARK QUINTANA: Could be worse, but it's...
KAREN QUINTANA: Yeah.
M QUINTANA: It's manageable, yeah...
K QUINTANA: Yeah.
M QUINTANA: ...Right now.
K QUINTANA: And we're safe. So that's...
M QUINTANA: Yeah. Yeah.
K QUINTANA: ...Pretty awesome. Yeah.
KASTENBAUM: For NPR News, I'm Steve Kastenbaum at LaGuardia Airport.
(SOUNDBITE OF BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE'S "PITTER PATTER GOES MY HEART") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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