LaGuardia plane crash: Runway safety system 'did not alert,' NTSB says

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A regional Air Canada jet collided into a Port Authority airport vehicle at LaGuardia Airport in New York City late Sunday, an on-the-ground crash that demolished the front of the airplane, killed two pilots, injured dozens of passengers and prompted the airport to shut down.

The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane reporting an odor onboard. Before the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop.

About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the rumor of only one controller being in the tower at the time of collision at LaGuardia last night is "not accurate," but did not provide further information on the staffing, saying it would be first shared with the NTSB as part of the investigation.

NTSB said the flight's cockpit voice recorder and cockpit data recorder (black boxes) were retrieved, and were immediately sent to Washington, D.C. to be reviewed.

(ABC News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.)