In March 2026, we saw an Air Canada Jazz CRJ-900 collide with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport (LGA), claiming the lives of two pilots, and injuring dozens of others.
Aviation is incredibly safe, and this is one of those cases where the “Swiss cheese model” for avoiding aviation catastrophes failed. The air traffic controller on duty was dealing with another emergency, and then accidentally cleared the fire truck onto the runway while the Air Canada jet was landing. That being said, the runway warning lights were flashing, and should’ve prevented the truck from entering the runway.
We’re now learning about another potential contributing cause, which might explain why the air traffic controller was so overworked…
In this post:
Two ATC left work an hour early, right before the crash
The Wall Street Journal is now reporting another unfortunate twist in this Air Canada crash story. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has determined that two air traffic controllers at LaGuardia left work around an hour early the night of the plane crash, and the agency is now moving to fire those two controllers.
Because they left early, there were only two air traffic controllers working that night in the tower, who didn’t have backup to assist with high workloads. The airport was reportedly seeing twice the usual volume of traffic the night of the accident.
What’s interesting is that the story talks about how leaving early is called an “early shove,” but according to current and former controllers, it’s a longstanding practice in the industry, yet FAA officials consider it to be a form of timecard fraud.
Here’s what Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy had to say about the decision to take action against the two air traffic controllers:
“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. 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. We will not tolerate fraud, and we are taking appropriate action to hold folks accountable and prevent unlawful practices from disrupting the traveling public.”
Air traffic controllers consistently leave early, but it’s fraud?!
It’s a bit confusing to hear how air traffic controllers pretty consistently leave earlier than the end of their shift, it’s seemingly tolerated by managers, and it’s also a form of fraud. So what exactly is going on here?
Well, current and former air traffic controllers say that managers have condoned them leaving their shifts before they officially end, and it has been seen as an informal perk after busy stretches of working, especially given how much overtime everyone is working nowadays, due to staffing shortages.
The Trump administration is reportedly trying to signal an aggressive response to this, in the form of firing controllers. The FAA has this year reportedly taken steps to fire more than 10 controllers for alleged timecard fraud or abuse of leave policies.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association claims it’s discussing timecard and leave fraud allegations with FAA leadership:
“What should not be ignored is the extraordinary dedication of the thousands of air-traffic controllers who report to work every day, often under extremely challenging staffing conditions, and remain focused on keeping the flying public safe.”
This whole situation is a bit of a head scratcher. So air traffic control is consistently understaffed and they’re working overtime, yet they also have a practice where they consistently leave early and commit timecard fraud? And it’s done on a widespread basis, and now the FAA is starting to crack down by firing a small number of people who have done it?
I don’t blame them for trying to figure this out, because the system in place where this consistently happens seems like a problem. But still…
Bottom line
In March 2026, an Air Canada plane and a fire truck collided on a LaGuardia Airport runway. Air traffic control was short staffed at the time, as the controller managing the runways was dealing with another emergency.
The FAA has now determined that two air traffic controllers left early that night, by around an hour, which is a form of timecard fraud. What’s interesting is that this is apparently a totally standard practice among air traffic controllers, even if it’s not allowed. The FAA is now trying to fire these controllers, and prove a point about how this practice has to stop.
What do you make of this ATC detail regarding the LaGuardia crash?
Obviously one controller below did not get the $10,000 bonus for working during the shutdown and all that person had to do was show up and DO their job. It is a job and you are paid well comparatively speaking. It’s a job, go find another cushy job that pays you as well and benefits without requiring you to be a business owner or formal education for college or graduate school. Cry me a river...
Obviously one controller below did not get the $10,000 bonus for working during the shutdown and all that person had to do was show up and DO their job. It is a job and you are paid well comparatively speaking. It’s a job, go find another cushy job that pays you as well and benefits without requiring you to be a business owner or formal education for college or graduate school. Cry me a river on 2.8 percent, sadly that’s our entitlement society. Raises are earned, not expected.
If you want a guaranteed raise. Go work in a state for minimum wage that is yearly increasing pay rates to hit a target pay. Oh, that’s also right in which you might be fired unexpectedly bc of guaranteed pay policies gored on employers.
So cry me a river on your cushy job, yes stressful…..but still cushy and it takes people being killed to possibly being fired. SAD.
What were the controllers scheduled hours that night? Did they leave before the end of those hours? If so, did they get supervisory approval to do so? Did they leave and still show as on the clock? Answer the questions before an opinion can be given.
I thought it had to do with shift breaks? i.e the breaks are scheduled in a way that one would fall at the end of the shift, so you leave rather than sit in a break room for half an hour and then leave? I wouldn't call that fraud; maybe just bad policy to require breaks to not be deferred that long
For work, we have contracts with Amazon to do XYZ in fulfillment and distribution centers. I know ( purely casual talking / acquaintances ) that I would see consistently on my visits over a few years at one facility in the smoking area. Lovely people and always showed up for work and exceeded the output rate Amazon predetermined while consistently being in top 1 percent of productivity in a certain state.
They were fired...
For work, we have contracts with Amazon to do XYZ in fulfillment and distribution centers. I know ( purely casual talking / acquaintances ) that I would see consistently on my visits over a few years at one facility in the smoking area. Lovely people and always showed up for work and exceeded the output rate Amazon predetermined while consistently being in top 1 percent of productivity in a certain state.
They were fired and blacklist by Amazon for time card fraud because they would go smoke on unscheduled breaks ( their managers let them go outside since finished ) Let me say, this was also when their work was done and Amazon preferred them to stand at a station for hours doing absolutely nothing.
So Amazon lets employees sit on phones, eat and mingle at stations while working and screwing around ( violates all policies and termination for cause / unproductive / time card fraud ) and not hit your rate. But people get fired bc time card fraud for smoking after they completed 10 hours of work in 7 hours and it’s approved by their team manager.
Yes, not nearly same thing as FAA and peoples lives but time card fraud is rampant and happens. I can guarantee the person that fired A & B person engages in time card fraud in a way as well.
As a controller myself, the administration is (not surprisingly) trying to shift blame as far away from themselves as possible and find any scapegoats possible. They slashed staffing targets and won’t even give us our 2.8% “raise” because the administrator claims we don’t work enough. Yes the controllers shouldn’t have left, but unless they were paged/called back and they didnt respond then that obviously had NOTHING to do with the crash in any way.
The Trump family as a whole gave up earning hundreds of billions in favor of working for the good for the American people and in service of the American people and here you are complaining about a few percentages of pay increase.
Ungrateful
Ron gets it. Thank you for what you do. Hopefully LGA actually fixes the transponder issue (or lack thereof), soon, so incidents like this are less likely to ever happen again.
(JPlat, holy gish-gallop, Batman; is your 'source' OAN, or Newsmax this time? Ignore Trump’s crypto, etc. $2.2 billion in 2025; blame those pesky wage-earners instead! /s)
That one hour difference is likely due to the shift overlap, if it’s a longstanding practice.
Then Secretary Duffy is an abuser as well for failure to solve the need for ATC overtime? Workers required to
serve overtime without compensation are slaves.
Of course, the managers are not punished.
Well that's not good