FAA moves to fire two controllers who left early before LaGuardia crash

Two pilots killed and six injured in March 22 runway collision

Two air-traffic controllers left their LaGuardia tower shifts roughly an hour early on the evening of March 22, the night an Air Canada regional jet collided with a firetruck on a runway, according to people familiar with the matter. The Federal Aviation Administration has now moved to fire both controllers, people familiar said. Their absence left two controllers who remained in the tower without backup to assist with high workloads as the airport handled more than twice its usual volume of traffic.

Two pilots died in the collision, the NTSB said. Six other people — including a crew member, passengers and workers on the ground — sustained serious injuries.

The crash occurred after a chaotic evening of thunderstorms and disruptions at LaGuardia. A United Airlines crew twice aborted their takeoff and then declared an emergency. A controller cleared a responding firetruck to cross a runway on which Air Canada Express Flight 8646 had also been cleared to land, the NTSB has said.

The practice of leaving before a shift ends is known in the industry as an “early shove,” according to current and former controllers, and is described by current and former FAA officials as a longstanding but unofficial arrangement. The FAA considers it a form of timecard fraud. Current and former controllers said managers have at times allowed them to leave before shifts officially ended, viewing it as an informal perk after busy stretches of work, though controllers may be on break and thus unavailable in emergencies.

The push to fire the LaGuardia controllers signals an aggressive response by the Trump administration. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a statement that “the vast majority of air-traffic controllers are great patriots — they show up for work, complete their full shift, and come back and do it all again.” He added: “But when a small percentage of individuals take advantage of the American taxpayer, unfairly add additional work to their fellow controllers, and impact the airspace — we have no choice but to act. We will not tolerate fraud.”

The agency has taken steps this year to terminate more than 10 controllers for alleged timecard fraud or abuse of leave policies, according to people familiar with the matter. The FAA said in April that it had about 11,000 fully certified air-traffic controllers, with 4,000 more in training.

The process to terminate controllers can be lengthy and can result in lighter punishments or reversals, as has happened in some cases this year, people familiar with the matter said. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said it was discussing timecard and leave fraud allegations with FAA leadership.

“What should not be ignored is the extraordinary dedication of the thousands of air-traffic controllers who report to work every day, often under extremely challenging staffing conditions, and remain focused on keeping the flying public safe,” the union said.

The FAA said it had hired more than 2,000 controllers so far this year, representing 94% of its 2026 hiring goal. The agency has sought to ramp up hiring to alleviate an air-traffic staffing shortage that has been a significant driver of travel delays.

The issue of controllers leaving work early surfaced publicly after a 2021 close call involving a Marine helicopter used by then-Vice President Kamala Harris at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. The FAA determined at the time that controllers at Reagan National had left work early, leaving the remaining staff juggling more responsibilities than they were supposed to handle. Former FAA officials said the agency found the practice was widespread at Reagan National but opted against tough discipline, in part because managers had condoned the early departures.

NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at a March press conference that staffing levels during midnight shifts have long been a concern of the board, “especially if there’s a heavy workload.” She said investigators would scrutinize tower staffing following the LaGuardia crash. “We have to determine who else was in the tower and the facility and available at the time,” Homendy said.

An NTSB spokesman said the agency is still investigating the March accident and has not made final conclusions about what role, if any, tower staffing may have played in the collision. Aviation accidents often result from a series of failures, and investigators may take a year or more to determine their causes, the NTSB has said.