The rapidly approaching plane that collided with a fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia Airport last month was most likely hard for the firefighters to see, a New York Times analysis has found.

They were navigating in the rain on a taxiway that was angled away from the oncoming plane. Because the plane had just touched down, the pilots and the firefighters were left with very little time to react.

The collision killed both pilots and was the first deadly crash at the airport in over three decades. The two firefighters, who were rushing to another emergency, survived with injuries.

The Times built a 3-D model, interviewed aviation experts and analyzed flight data, video footage of the crash and air traffic control audio — all to answer a critical question: What could the firefighters see?

The truck’s dispatch

The two firefighters were driving on Taxiway D in the lead vehicle of a convoy that had been dispatched to assist with an emergency on the other side of the airport from the fire station.

Their fire truck, a type that can weigh upward of 60,000 pounds when fully loaded, is designed with the driver’s seat in the center, in part to offer better visibility. The other firefighter typically sits to the right of the driver.

The air traffic control tower had cleared an Air Canada Express jet to land on Runway 4. About two minutes later, the tower cleared the truck to cross the same runway using Taxiway D. Eleven seconds later, the tower called back with an urgent warning to stop, but the truck kept moving. It is unclear if the firefighters in the truck heard the warnings.

Each firefighter had a disadvantage

Even in an optimal scenario in which the driver was looking directly toward the oncoming plane in the moments before collision, it’s likely that his view of the approaching plane would have been obstructed by the second firefighter.

If the driver had leaned forward slightly with his head turned about 90 degrees to the right before looking straight again, the plane would have most likely been obstructed:

The second firefighter would have had a better view, but for him, the plane would most likely not have stood out as a moving object until it grew closer to the truck. Even as the plane was approaching, it would have stayed in roughly the same position in his field of view — making the plane more difficult to track than if it had been moving across his line of sight.

This is a familiar phenomenon documented in aviation and maritime navigation, in which an object approaching on a collision course can appear to be stationary until the last moment, when it seems to suddenly grow in size.

Here is what the view for the second firefighter could have been if he had been leaning forward slightly with his head turned about 90 degrees to the right and looking toward the plane:

Crash footage shows that there was one vehicle in the convoy initially traveling alongside the fire truck, and it may also have blocked the firefighters’ view of the runway before it came to a stop about seven seconds before the crash.

Based on the available evidence, there is no way to know with certainty where the firefighters were looking in the seconds before the crash. The runway where the crash occurred is bidirectional, meaning planes can approach one at a time for landing in both directions. As a result, the firefighters would not necessarily have been able to assume the direction of oncoming planes.

The two firefighters, Sgt. Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez, who were hospitalized along with about 40 others, did not respond to requests for comment. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which runs LaGuardia Airport and its fire rescue unit, declined to comment.

The taxiway was angled away from the oncoming plane

The lead fire truck had been driving along a taxiway that was angled away from the direction of the oncoming plane. This means that the plane was approaching off the right rear section of the truck — where it would have been difficult for the firefighters to see — instead of its direct right-hand side.

As a result of the angle, the driver would have had a difficult time spotting the plane, regardless of where he was looking. If he had turned to the right, toward the plane, his view might have also been obstructed by the firefighter beside him:

The plane would have appeared in the right corner of the second firefighter’s field of view, but only if he had leaned forward slightly, turned his head to the right and looked in the plane’s direction. Here is what he might have seen right before the truck entered the runway about two seconds before collision:

The analysis of the crash footage also shows that the truck turned slightly toward the left as it entered the runway. It is unclear whether it turned because the firefighters saw the plane, but the change in direction angled the firefighters farther away from the approaching plane, making it even harder to see.

Airports use these slanted taxiways because they allow planes to exit the runway more quickly, instead of having to make a sharp 90-degree turn at a slower speed.

That said, the Federal Aviation Administration urges airports to use intersections configured at 90-degree angles because they give pilots and drivers the best visual perspectives to see other aircraft and vehicles, said Michael O’Donnell, a retired F.A.A. official and a former airport firefighter.

The truck did not slow down or stop before entering the runway

The Times analysis of the crash footage indicates that the truck did not stop or slow down before entering the runway and that it was traveling at a relatively steady speed of about 30 miles per hour from the moment the air traffic controller first gave the warning to stop until the collision.

Slowing down or stopping entirely may have given the firefighters more time to look and assess any oncoming traffic on the runway.

Seconds after the controller first warned the truck to stop, about seven seconds before the crash, the convoy of vehicles that was following the lead truck slowed down and stopped while the lead truck continued.

Once the tower clears an emergency response vehicle to cross a runway, the vehicle’s drivers are not expected to obey the stop marks on the pavement, Mr. O’Donnell said. But they are expected to look for aircraft before crossing and proceed with caution, he said.

Other distractions

It’s also likely that there were other visual distractions. The airport runway and taxiways are lined with lights. The night of the crash was rainy and misty, and the rain-slicked surface of the runway could have given it the appearance of a glaring light show.

“At night, it’s basically like driving through a lit-up Christmas tree,” said Bobby Egbert, a spokesman for the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, the officer’s union. “You have so many lights and the crew has to know exactly what those lights mean.”

What the firefighters could have seen or not seen “with that equipment, at that time of night, with that illumination,” is one of the many components of the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigation, said Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the board, who said the preliminary report would be released later this month. He declined to answer questions about the crash, citing the ongoing investigation.

According to safety board officials, the airport’s runway status lights, set in the pavement at taxiways and runway crossings to warn of planes on or approaching the runway, were functional that night. Video analysis of the crash shows that the truck may have entered the runway around the same time as the lights went from red to dark, which they are designed to do a couple seconds before a plane passes.

What the jet’s pilots may have seen

For the pilots, Captain Antoine Forest and First Officer Mackenzie Gunther, the truck was most likely in their field of vision from the cockpit, if they were looking down the runway:

About the same time that the fire truck entered the runway, the Air Canada jet dropped its speed sharply below what is typical after touchdown, according to a Times analysis that compared the jet’s flight data with hundreds of other landings on Runway 4 by the same aircraft model. The plane reduced its speed to about 100 miles per hour from about 140 miles per hour in about three seconds.

The firefighters’ limited visibility is only one factor among many that the authorities are investigating as possibly contributing to the crash. They are also looking into any potential problems with air traffic controller staffing, radio miscommunications and vehicle tracking technology.

President Donald Trump is nominating a former Coast Guard officer and public health official to lead the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The president named Dr. Erica Schwartz on Thursday to run the embattled agency, which has been without a permanent director since Dr. Susan Monarez’s ouster in August.

“It is my Honor to nominate the incredibly talented Dr. Erica Schwartz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “She is a STAR!”

Schwartz served as deputy surgeon general in Trump’s first administration, spent 24 years in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as a rear admiral in the Coast Guard. She holds a medical degree from Brown University and a law degree from the University of Maryland.

US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his team had recommended Schwartz to the president along with a slate of other appointees to shore up CDC leadership whom Trump also named Thursday.

They include US Food and Drug Administration Principal Deputy Commissioner Dr. Sara Brenner, who will serve as a public health adviser to Kennedy; Dr. Jennifer Shuford, commissioner of the Texas health department, who will become CDC deputy director and chief medical officer; and Sean Slovenski, a former Walmart and Humana executive who will serve as a deputy director and chief operating officer.

The secretary nodded to the incoming group of CDC leaders during a congressional budget hearing on Thursday.

“We’re bringing in an extraordinary team. … The team has been leaked, and it’s gotten applause from both Republicans and Democrats,” Kennedy said before the House Appropriations subcommittee on health. “I think this new team is really going to be able to revolutionize CDC and get it back on track and get it doing the job that it does better than any other health agency in the world.”

Schwartz certainly has a background in the CDC’s areas of expertise. During her time with the Coast Guard, she led disease surveillance and vaccination programs and wrote Coast Guard policy on pandemic influenza and other viral disease outbreaks.

She also played a role in the government’s response to natural disasters, including hurricanes and earthquakes.

Still, Schwartz will probably face skepticism from some senators over whether she’s willing to break with Kennedy on controversial issues such as vaccine policy.

The White House was under a deadline to nominate a permanent director of the CDC after Kennedy abruptly fired the last Senate-confirmed director, Monarez, in August. The federal Vacancies Act says a Senate-confirmed position can be open for only 210 days, and past that deadline, the agency cannot have an acting director. That 210-day mark fell in late March.

Currently, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya is serving a dual role as director of the National Institutes of Health and as head of the CDC, after serving as its acting director.

If confirmed into the role, Schwartz will inherit an agency looking to strike a balance between its traditional public health mission and a slew of high-profile changes, exits and proposed budget cuts.

Monarez was in office for just under a month before she was fired by Kennedy over her refusal to rubber-stamp changes to vaccine policy. After her dismissal, several high-level officials in the agency resigned in protest, leaving a leadership vacuum.

Shortly after Monarez took office, a gunman who blamed vaccines for his health problems attacked the CDC’s Atlanta headquarters, firing more than 180 rounds that sprayed multiple buildings and killed DeKalb County Police Officer David Rose.

Prior to the shooting, CDC staffers had endured months of chaos. Thousands of reduction-in-force cuts hollowed out divisions and departments, though some of those were reinstated after legal action. Web pages on vaccine safety were edited without consultation with staff scientists to cast doubt on statements that vaccines do not cause autism. Political appointees filled top leadership posts that had once been occupied by career staff.

Kennedy dismissed a key panel of 17 experts that advise the CDC on its vaccine decisions, replacing them with his own picks, many of whom have emphasized the risks of vaccines while downplaying their health benefits. A federal judge has reversed some of Kennedy’s efforts, saying he probably violated federal procedures.

Meanwhile, measles cases in the US are at their highest level in three decades, and the nation risks losing its status as a country that has eliminated ongoing transmission of the highly infectious disease within its borders. Other infectious diseases, including whooping cough and mumps, have also surged as vaccination rates have dropped.

Schwartz will go before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee for confirmation. The HELP committee has not yet voted on another Trump administration nominee, Dr. Casey Means, to serve as surgeon general. Means testified in a February hearing that circled back repeatedly to her views on vaccines, with some Republicans, including committee Chairman Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, expressing concerns about the administration’s changes to vaccine recommendations.

Asked by lawmakers on Thursday about morale at the CDC, Kennedy said that it has improved since broad layoffs led by federal DOGE Services last year and that the new CDC leadership will help the agency progress.

“Morale is much better than it was a year ago. I think a year ago, it was really at a nadir. You know, during all the [reductions in force],” he said.