LaGuardia Controllers Often Faced Late Sunday Rush Before Crash

The two air traffic controllers at LaGuardia Airport were grappling with a higher-than-anticipated workload, complicated by foul weather, when an inbound Air Canada Express jet plowed into a fire truck on Sunday evening, killing both pilots.

The heavy, late-evening traffic wasn’t out of the ordinary for LaGuardia, data from aviation analytics company Cirium show. Air crews and controllers consistently face a late-evening rush to clear planes from the busy New York City airport where scheduled flight operations generally cease around midnight.