Laguardia commuter versus fire truck

15 hours ago, frog said:

It’s not even close to the same thing.

Yes, the fire crew is part of the accident chain and will bear some responsibility.

They are also on a very strict response clock, responding to an emergency that they don’t have all of the details on, working multiple frequencies, in a vehicle with poor visibility, in a vehicle formation, at night.

Again, that isn’t an excuse for one of the many failures in the accident chain. However, glossing over situational and human factors issues isn’t going to make things safer. This is more than just a “too lazy to look” moment.

It’s a tough situation all around. Everyone needs to take the lessons learned, integrate them into training, and be better.

100% disagree. This line of thought of "I gotta get there right now because its an emergency" is almost certainly a root cause of the pilots' deaths. All first responders should have the first duty to "do no harm" just like doctors. This is not the first time that a fire truck in a hurry has killed innocent people on at an American airport. Fire trucks do not have that poor of visibility and they can see more than the pilots can from the cockpit windows. The lights are a problem, but that should only make them more cautious, not less.

Part of the emergency call on the red line is the nature of the emergency. The driver of the fire truck either knew or should have known that this was much more in the lines of an annoyance emergency than a plane on fire.