There were two controllers in the tower
Homendy said two people were working in the tower cabin at the time of the crash: a local controller and the controller in charge.
The local controller manages active runways and the immediate airspace surrounding the airport, she said. The controller in charge is responsible for all safety operations and was also responsible for performing the duties of the clearance delivery controller, which provides pilots with their departure clearance, she said.
The NTSB is still trying to determine who was performing the duties of the ground controller, who manages all aircraft and vehicle movement on taxiways.
“We have conflicting information. We have some information saying it was the controller in charge. We have some information saying it was the local controller,” she said.
Homendy said it is common practice “across national airspace” to have two controllers during the midnight shift, although she said the NTSB has expressed concerns in the past about fatigue with the shift.
“I do not know, I have no indication that was a factor here, but it is a shift that we have been focused on in past investigations,” she said.
The local controller signed in at work at 10:45 p.m., and the controller in charge signed in at 10:30 p.m.
The two pilots who were killed saved lives
The pilots have been credited with saving the lives of the 72 passengers and the two surviving crew members on the plane Sunday night by quickly braking and minimizing the impact as it crashed into the truck as it was landing.
More than 40 people were taken for treatment for mostly minor injuries, and most were soon released, although some remain hospitalized with serious injuries.
Jack Cabot, 22, a passenger on the Canada Air flight returning home from a spring break ski trip, told NBC News that from his seat in the 18th row, he could feel the pilots trying to slow the plane in the moments before the collision. The crash left him with a bruise on his cheek and a sore neck after his head banged into the seat in front of him, but he knew it could have been much more dire.
“I think everybody on that plane feels very grateful that they’re all alive, and they all pretty much give it to the pilots,” Cabot said. “They really just did the best they could.”
Another passenger, Clément Lelièvre, echoed the sentiment to the Montreal-based La Presse news outlet, praising the pilots’ quick reflexes: “Il nous a sauvés.” He saved us.
Cabot said that upon seeing the damage to the nose of the plane when he exited through the emergency door, he knew the pilots could not have survived.
“We all saw the cockpit and just knew that people had died,” he said.
One pilot, Forest, was widely named in Canadian news media, and a family member who asked to remain anonymous confirmed his death to NBC News.
A LinkedIn profile bearing his name lists him as a pilot based in the greater Montreal area working for Jazz Aviation, the company that operated Flight 8646 on behalf of Air Canada.