Explainer-Can the US government be held liable for the LaGuardia Airport collision?

By Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK, March 25 (Reuters) – Investigators are probing the potential causes of Sunday’s collision between an Air Canada Express plane and a fire truck at LaGuardia Airport in New York. The two pilots were killed. Air Canada said 39 of the 76 passengers and crew were hospitalized. The accident revived concern about air traffic control shortages.

The following is a look at the potential liability of federal and local authorities to the pilots’ families, passengers and surviving crew.

WHAT HAPPENED

According to a recording of air traffic controller communications from LiveATC.net, a controller who authorized Air Canada flight 8646 to land had been trying to find a gate for a United Airlines flight whose crew reported a bad odor that sickened flight attendants.

The same controller appeared to have cleared the fire truck to cross the runway where the Air Canada flight, operated by Jazz Aviation, was landing. 

“Stop, truck one, stop,” the controller said shortly after approving passage.

In a separate recording, an unidentified controller who appeared to be the one involved in the crash seemed to blame himself for the accident, saying he had been dealing with an emergency earlier. “I messed up,” he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun an investigation. An NTSB official said the fire truck lacked a transponder, unlike similar vehicles at other U.S. airports, making it harder for LaGuardia’s warning systems to track the truck’s movement.

CAN THE GOVERNMENT BE SUED FOR THE CRASH?

The Federal Employees Liability Reform and Tort Compensation Act of 1988, often known as the Westfall Act, gives federal employees immunity for common law torts, or private wrongs, they commit in the scope of their employment. Negligence is one such private wrong.

Though the federal government enjoys sovereign immunity from many lawsuits, it can through the Federal Aviation Administration be held responsible for air traffic controllers’ negligence through the Federal Tort Claims Act.

The FTCA provides a limited waiver for “personal injury or death caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission” of federal employees acting within the scope of their employment.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey operates LaGuardia Airport, and two of its officers were in the fire truck. It can be sued under laws of both states.  

WHAT’S THE PATH TO A LAWSUIT?

Claimants have two years after an incident to file administrative claims with the FAA that set forth the nature of their injuries, the basis for their claims and the dollar amounts they seek.

The FAA has six months to accept or deny claims. If the FAA denies a claim, the claimant has six months from the date of denial to file a lawsuit. If the FAA fails to accept or deny a claim within six months, a claimant may treat that failure as a denial and file a lawsuit.

Claimants have less time to pursue claims against the Port Authority. They have 90 days after an incident to file claims, and must wait at least 60 additional days before filing lawsuits. They must file lawsuits within one year after incidents occur.

POSSIBLE CLAIMS AND DEFENSES

Claimants can sue for wrongful death. They can also sue for economic injuries such as medical bills, lost wages and a loss of earning power, as well as non-economic injuries such as emotional distress and the loss of companionship.

At this early stage, such claims stemming from the LaGuardia accident appear “exceptionally strong,” according to a lawyer who has represented claimants in similar litigation. Another lawyer said that when a plane receives clearance to land, “you have a reasonable expectation that the runway is yours.”

Legal experts said the FAA could argue that its controllers followed their operations manual, or that staffing and employment actions were discretionary.

Hypothetically, if the FAA determined that to ensure people’s safety it needed five controllers to operate a tower, it could defend against accusations it should have employed six, but lacked discretion to operate a tower with only four.

The FAA has long been short of air traffic controllers, though U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told reporters that LaGuardia was well-staffed with 33, compared with a target of 37. 

OTHER CASES

The FAA was sued for $6.55 million in 2019 by the family of John Brown, a pilot killed in a 2016 crash near Reno-Tahoe International Airport after his small plane flew into turbulence from a Boeing 757.

A judge initially found the pilot at fault, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in 2024 that an air traffic controller did not act reasonably in failing to instruct Brown to maintain “visual separation” from the jet and receive confirmation he was doing so.

“We are not mandating strict adherence to the [Air Traffic Controller] Manual nor requiring ‘magic words’ from air traffic controllers,” but the burden on this controller was “minimal,” the court said. Brown’s family and the FAA settled last year. The government did not admit liability in agreeing to settle.

In separate litigation, at least 34 lawsuits have been filed over the deaths of 67 people in January 2025 when American Airlines flight 5342, operated by PSA Airlines as American Eagle, collided with an Army helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C.

Claimants say the government should be liable for negligence by the controllers and the Army flight crew. In a December court filing, the government called the Army pilots’ “failure to maintain vigilance” to see and avoid the American Eagle plane a “proximate cause” of the accident, but denied that controller negligence was also a proximate cause.

Last month, the NTSB said “degraded controller performance and situation awareness” stemming from a high workload contributed to the accident.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Mark Porter)