Eighteen minutes after the crash of Air Canada flight 8646, the air traffic controller in the tower appears to say to a pilot on the ground radio frequency, “I messed up.”
The words come before the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board’s extensive investigation into the cause of the crash that will follow. The air traffic communications will be a part of their probe. Determining root causes of aviation accidents can take a year or longer and often involve multiple contributing factors.
The exchange happened with a Frontier Airlines pilot waiting to return to the gate who saw the crash.
“That wasn’t good to watch,” he said in audio recorded by LiveATC.net.
“Yeah, I know. I tried to reach out to them,” the noticeably distraught controller said. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier. I messed up.”
The pilot responded, “Nah, man, you did the best you could.”
Listen to the audio clip here:
The controller had cleared the fire truck to cross the runway to help a plane on the other side of the airport that reported a smell inside the plane after aborting a takeoff due to a warning light, according to the audio recordings.
Prior to the crash, the controller can also be heard on the air traffic control recordings frantically trying to stop the truck from crossing the runway.
“Stop. Stop. Stop. Stop truck 1. Stop,” he says.
The controller can then be heard directing other aircraft to abort their landings and “go around,” noting the runway is now closed.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association – the labor union representing controllers – did not comment when reached by CNN.
