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It was “just pure luck’’ that the LaGuardia plane crash didn’t involve more fatalities — with the jet miraculously hitting the fire truck at an angle that avoided fuel supplies, an aviation-safety analyst said Monday.
Former FAA safety inspector David Soucie told CNN that the spot on the truck where the Air Canada passenger plane struck it minimized the destruction, which led to two pilots killed and scores of passengers, crew and two cops wounded.
The destroyed Port Authority fire truck is seen on the runway after a deadly collision with an Air Canada plane. Getty ImagesFollow The Post’s live updates on the deadly LaGuardia plane crash
“Because that aircraft hit directly in the middle of the fire truck, the fire truck was moved forward, and the aircraft was damaged in the nose,” Soucie said.
If the truck was 40 feet back or forward, “it would have struck against the wing, the fuel cells, the engines and would have created a huge fire and … many, many fatalities,” Soucie said.
“So as tragic as this is for the two that we’ve lost, just out of pure luck, that airplane hit in the middle of that fire truck and reduced the number of fatalities significantly.”
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Scores of travelers and other crew members were injured in the scary collision that took place around 11:45 p.m. Sunday.
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