The captain of a Delta Air Lines regional jet involved in last month’s collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport told investigators he does not remember hearing instructions to yield to another plane.
According to The Associated Press, a preliminary report released Thursday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the incident occurred on the night of Oct. 1, when a jet preparing for takeoff to Roanoke, Virginia, with 32 people on board, struck another Delta aircraft arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina, carrying 61 passengers.
The low-speed collision happened at the intersection of two taxiways, injuring a flight attendant and causing significant damage to both aircraft.
The impact gouged the nose of one plane, shattered its cockpit window, and damaged the wing of the other, the NTSB said.
According to the report, the ground controller instructed the outbound flight, Delta Connection 5155, to “give way” to another aircraft. The crew acknowledged the command, but the captain later told investigators he did not recall hearing the order.
He said his attention was focused on “calculating performance numbers for the landing,” and he was “looking down into the cockpit to visually verify the airplane trim setting as part of the checklist.”
“When he looked up he saw flight 5047 to the right,” the report stated.
The captain of flight 5155 said he attempted to veer left to avoid the other plane, while the captain of flight 5047 said he applied brakes immediately before the collision.
The NTSB’s investigation into the crash remains ongoing and the preliminary report does not assign fault or identify a cause.
Delta Air Lines declined to comment on the findings, saying only that the company is “fully cooperating with the investigation.”
