the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Mar 30, 2026
An Air Canada plane crashed into a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia airport at 11:37 pm on March 22, killing the two pilots and injuring dozens.
At the time of the crash, one of the two controllers in the tower was also doing the duties of a third controller at the same time. That might be fine most nights, because there is little late night air traffic at LaGuardia. But that night there were lots of delayed flights, so they were landing one after another.
Even that might have worked out if there were no other problems, but problems do happen! A United Airlines flight had to abort two takeoff attempts because of an odor that was sickening crew members. The fire truck hit by the plane was responding to that emergency when it crossed the runway where the Air Canada plane was landing.
Even that might not have caused a crash if the fire truck had a transponder, allowing controllers to track its movements—but it didn’t.
Nine seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller told the fire truck to stop, but the truck kept going. It’s not clear if the drivers of the truck heard the order—or if there was another equipment problem that prevented them from hearing it.
After the crash, one of the controllers said “I messed up.” Yes, but mostly, the whole system messed up!
For years, the FAA has had a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers. They regularly put in overtime and work six-day weeks. As a result of staffing shortages, they are routinely tasked to do two jobs at once. Not a great idea for a job where everyone better be paying attention at all times or people can die!
And while the government can spring for giant projects that provide handsome profits to contractors, like the remaking of LaGuardia’s terminals a few years ago, it has been underfunding basic maintenance that pays for things like fire truck transponders and the upgrading of air traffic control systems for decades.
The population relies on many safety measures that can only be organized at the scale of the whole society, like air traffic control. But the capitalist class devours every dollar of the public money needed for these measures.