(REUTERS) Investigators looking into the cause of a runway accident that killed two pilots at LaGuardia Airport in New York late Sunday (March 22) may focus on whether air traffic control was properly staffed an analyst told Reuters.

The crash between an Air Canada Express jet and a fire truck at LaGuardia injured dozens of passengers, shut the airport, and led to hundreds of flight cancellations at the start of the working week, the latest disruption for airports and carriers that have been knocked off-kilter by a weeks-long budget standoff in Congress.

Aviation expert Daniel Bubb told Reuters on Monday (March 23) that this type of incident is “exceedingly rare” and that audio recordings and the chain of events should lead investigators in the direction of air traffic controllers.

“It sounded like the firefighters were following the controller's instructions for crossing the runway,” Bubb said. “It's just the controller made a mistake and not piecing the whole thing together where you have a fire truck crossing an active runway with a plane that has landed and is finishing… what we call the rollout phase of the landing.”

U.S. aviation has faced a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers, but it was not immediately clear what led to the crash. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and other officials were traveling to New York to investigate. Air-crash investigations typically find that accidents result from multiple contributing factors, rather than a single cause.

Daniel Bubb, who is a professor in residence at UNLV, said that the ongoing shortage of air traffic controllers is very concerning, and needs to be a focus in this investigation.

“It really underscores the importance of ensuring that our current air traffic, controllers are rested, they're not overworked, they're not overly stressed, because many of them have been working six-day shifts, they've been working longer than their regular shift, and that's where they start getting fatigued and that where mishaps start to occur,” he said.

According to air traffic control audio, a controller can be heard telling the craft that a fire truck was en route and clearing a truck to cross a runway. Moments later, the controller can be heard saying: "Stop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop, truck 1, stop."

Posted by: AAngeles/NET25 News