Cherelle White runs her business, Delight Bites, out of Radcliffe.

The 43-year-old regularly uploads photos of cakes and catering that she has done on social media in order to promote her business.

The mum-of-five said it was last year when a customer informed her that a rival baker in the Bury area had been using these photographs on her own page, claiming they were her own.

She said she blocked the user, Lou’s Cake Box, online so that this could not happen again and had not thought about the situation until Tuesday, April 14.

Cherella White, owner of Delight Bites (Image: Cherella White)

This was when a customer who had ordered a special cake, half decorated Manchester United themed and half decorated Manchester City themed, sent her a message to tell her she had spotted the picture of the cake being advertised on another page.

Cherella said she believed the baker had edited the picture so that the name on the cake had been changed.

She said: “It’s really deflating to be honest because obviously a lot of hard work goes into each and every cake that I make.

“I’m just wondering what customers who are ordering with her are actually getting, because if she’s not actually posting genuine work, I’m not sure what customers would be getting from her.

The picture of the half and half cake Cherella White alleges was copied (Image: Cherella White)

“Obviously, with us being small businesses and for somebody to be doing that, I think to be stealing your work and portraying it as their own is just it’s disgusting really.

“As a small, independent business, I put a huge amount of time, effort and passion into every order I create. Seeing my work used without permission is not only upsetting but also potentially damaging, as customers may believe they are ordering from me or receiving the same standard elsewhere.

“I felt it was important to raise awareness, not just for myself but for other small businesses that work incredibly hard to build their reputation honestly.

“I hope this encourages people to support genuine small businesses and to always check who they are ordering from.”

The picture of the cake Cherella White alleges has been copied (Image: Cherelle White)

After Cherella posted about the photos on her page, other bakers came forward in the comment section, claiming they had a similar experience with the same business.

Bella Bakes Bolton, owned by Bella Riding, claims the same baker copied the captions they shared on their social media posts.

Bella, 23, said she noticed last week that one of her captions had been copied and pasted by the baker and shared on its page to advertise products.

She said: “We only knew because we put on a heart cake and we said it was for a very bougie 10-year-old.

“I was reading her post, and at the bottom it says, a heart cake for a very bougie 10-year-old with a picture of a superhero cake she’d done.

“That’s kind of when we knew, right, she is copy and pasting.

“Which is really frustrating because we, as well as lots of other bakers, work hard on not only making the cakes, but then writing about the cakes.

“We never copy, don’t use Chat GPT or anything like that. It all comes from us.

“So to see someone else think, oh, I’ll just copy and paste that is really frustrating.”

Bella said she did not believe her images had been copied, but that it was sad to hear others might have been subjected to this.

She said: “It’s the hard work and effort that we bakers put into creating these cakes, and they’re all bespoke cakes as well.

“For someone to just then try and pass that off as their own, it’s quite disheartening, really.

“It’s really tight-knit. We all give each other advice, or if we’re not available to do cakes, we’ll pass them on to other bakers.

“So for that small minority to kind of be doing that ruins all the good that everybody else does.”

Hayley Comiskey-Harwood, owner of Comiskey’s Creations, claims the baker also copied her captions from social media.

A caption Comiskey’s Creations alleges has been copied (Image: Comiskey’s Creations)

The 39-year-old said she blocked the baker around six months ago after she realised this was happening.

Hayley said: “You create your work, you create your platform and your images and your cakes, which you do from scratch and then somebody else uses your content, it’s not very good really.

“She obviously doesn’t know how much damage she’s doing because, you know, at the end of the day, there are ideas which she’s stealing and we just come up with them ourselves.

“It’s hard, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and at the end of the day, we’re all trying to make a living, and she’s posting things that she’s not come up with. I don’t think that’s very fair.”

She said from now on, she will be putting a watermark on the pictures she shares on her page.

Hayley added: “It’s frustrating because you work so hard to get where you are, and then you just see she is trying to shortcut to make her business established.

A caption Comiskey’s Creations alleges has been copied (Image: Facebook)

“Everyone’s got the right to run a business as long as it’s done properly, but when you’re resorting to copying and pasting people’s posts and stealing pictures, that’s just not on.”

Lou’s Cake Box was contacted by the Bury Times and declined to comment.

Greater Manchester Police were contacted.

Oil prices held above $105 a barrel on Friday as the Strait of Hormuz remained closed, with both the US and Iran seizing ships.

Brent crude climbed 0.63 per cent to $105.73 a barrel, and US West Texas Intermediate advanced 0.32 per cent to $96.17, as the naval standoff keeping the waterway shut showed no sign of resolution.

Asian equity markets were mixed despite the persistent energy pressure. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 0.3 per cent and was on track for a weekly gain of 0.8 per cent, while Japan’s Nikkei added 0.45 per cent.

Stocks in South Korea, China and Hong Kong fell. Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures advanced 0.6 per cent and 0.1 per cent respectively after closing lower in the cash session overnight, while European futures pointed to a softer open.

Israel and Lebanon agreed to extend their ceasefire for three weeks following a White House meeting on Thursday. “The Meeting went very well!” Donald Trump posted on social media.

The broader US-Iran ceasefire has also held, but the conflict has evolved into duelling naval blockades as both sides seek economic leverage to secure a deal on favourable terms.

Iran seized two cargo ships in the strait on Wednesday and continued to demand that vessels receive its permission to cross, while the US has intercepted several Iranian oil tankers and maintained its blockade of Iran’s ports since 13 April.

“The longer the strait remains closed, the greater the economic costs – raising the likelihood that one side will be forced to back down,” Commonwealth Bank of Australia wrote in a note on Friday, adding that it judged the US would be the first to concede given mounting political and economic pressure, though warning that the risk of major military escalation remained.

“The thing is, a ceasefire is a funny term to use in conjunction with a blockade and rolling tensions and animosities,” Vishnu Varathan, head of macro strategy for Asia-Pacific at Mizuho told Reuters. “It’s not going to be a linear de-escalation. Investors have just been looking for excuses to put on optimistic trades opportunistically. I don’t think anybody in the market truly believes that this will be over in a week or two.”

Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, told CNBC on Thursday that the world was facing “the biggest energy security threat in history.”

Around 20 million barrels of oil and petroleum products were shipped through the strait daily before the war began.

“As of today, we’ve lost 13 million barrels per day of oil and there are major disruptions in vital commodities,” he said, urging governments to bolster their resilience with alternative energy sources. Currency markets were relatively calm. The euro fell to $1.1684 and was set to lose nearly 0.7 per cent for the week, while sterling held at $1.3469.

The Japanese yen edged to 159.78 per dollar, just below the 160 level widely seen as a potential trigger for intervention, with Japan’s finance minister renewing warnings of decisive action in close coordination with Washington. Central bank decisions from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England are all due next week, with investors watching for guidance on how policymakers plan to respond to war-driven inflation. Gold was flat at $4,691.60 an ounce.

The announcement by the government that a legal ban will be placed on mobile phones in English schools marks a continued shift in tone, if not necessarily in substance, around the control of devices in educational settings.

What is being presented as a decisive intervention into children’s wellbeing is, in practice, the legal amplification of a reality that already exists across most schools. According to research last year by the Children’s Commissioner, around 90% of secondary schools and almost all primary schools already restrict phone use in some form.

These restrictions range from outright bans to locking phones away or “not seen, not heard” approaches (where phones are allowed on school premises, and may be kept in pupils’ bags, but must not be used). The ban will make existing guidance for schools statutory.

This raises an immediate question: if the practice is already widespread, why make it law?

There are, on the surface, reasonable arguments for moving from guidance to legislation. First, this gives school leaders clarity. A statutory footing removes ambiguity and may strengthen schools’ position when challenged by parents.

Second, it provides consistency between schools. A legal requirement creates a baseline expectation across the system, reducing variation between schools.

And finally, there is political signalling. The government is able to demonstrate action on an issue that resonates strongly with public concern.

However, the policy also illustrates a dynamic in education and online safety policy I have written about at length – a move from practice to performance.

If nearly all schools already restrict phones, then the legal change risks being largely symbolic. Sector leaders have acknowledged that “a statutory ban… doesn’t really change very much”.

More critically, it reframes a question of professional judgement as one of compliance. Since 2011, headteachers have had the authority to discipline pupils and set behaviour policies, including banning phones. What changes here is not capability, but the removal of discretion or, arguably, trust in school leadership.

Need for clarity

And, paradoxically but predictably, while the policy may be unnecessary for some, it is insufficient for others. Campaigners and politicians have already criticised the move for potentially retaining flexibility – particularly the “not seen, not heard” model – which they argue fails to meaningfully remove phones from the school day.

Olivia Bailey, parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department of Education, insisted in the most recent debate that “We are categorically crystal clear that there is no access to phones at any point during the school day”, and that references to “not seen, not heard” approaches had been removed from guidance.

But she also stated: “It is not for me to determine how a headteacher enforces their discipline and behaviour policies in their school.” Therefore, there is a chance a school adopting such an approach might not be challenged without a particularly fastidious Ofsted inspection.

Perhaps the most significant gap in the policy, therefore, is not its intent, but its execution, which has resulted in professionals asking for more guidance. Schools currently use a range of methods: confiscation, lockers, locked pouches, or behavioural rules. These approaches carry costs – financial, logistical, and in how they affect relationships between staff and pupils. Sector leaders have already pointed to the need for funding to support secure storage systems. Enforcement, too, remains ambiguous.

A legal requirement does not eliminate the day-to-day realities of managing compliance. This includes managing pupils concealing devices, disputes with parents, uneven application across staff and varying support from senior leaders around classroom discipline.

Facing pressure

The government had previously resisted calls for a statutory ban, arguing it was unnecessary. The new announcement appears to have been driven less by new evidence and more by political pressure in the House of Lords and from campaign groups.

There is a broader cultural push toward restriction, whether school phone bans or proposals for wider social media limits. Some countries have already put social media bans in place, although their effectiveness remains to be seen.

Banning phones in classrooms is not, in itself, particularly controversial. Many schools have done so for years with little fuss. What is new is not the ban, but the decision to legislate it.

That shift tells us less about phones and more about the current policy climate: one in which guidance becomes law, discretion becomes compliance, and familiar practices are recast as solutions to increasingly expansive problems.

Slovenia’s national broadcaster, RTV Slovenia, has said it will not air this year’s Eurovision Song Contest following the country’s decision to withdraw over Israel‘s continued participation.

The main competition, featuring 35 nations, is scheduled to take place in Vienna from 12-16 May.

Slovenia joins a growing list of countries, including Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Spain, in boycotting the event.

Ksenija Horvat, RTV Slovenia director, confirmed the move to The Associated Press, stating: “We will not be broadcasting the Eurovision Song Contest.”

She added, “We will be airing the film series ‘Voices of Palestine,’ featuring Palestinian documentaries and feature films.”

Organisers’ December decision to allow Israel to compete prompted the walkout. Slovenia has been a vocal critic of Israel’s conduct in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.

While Eurovision aims to prioritise pop music over politics, it has frequently found itself entangled in global events, notably expelling Russia in 2022 after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The current Israel-Hamas war has similarly roiled the contest, leading to protests and stricter rules against political displays at venues.

Slovenia’s announcement comes days after Paul Weller, Kneecap, Massive Attack and Paloma Faith and 1,000-plus artists signed an open letter calling for fans to boycott the event.

“As musicians and cultural workers, many living within the reaches of the [EBU], we reject Eurovision being used to whitewash and normalise Israel’s genocide, siege and brutal military occupation against Palestinians,” the letter, organised by No Music for Genocide and the BDS movement, said in part.

“We stand in solidarity with Palestinian calls for public broadcasters, performers, screening party organisers, crew, and fans to boycott Eurovision until the EBU bans complicit Israeli broadcaster KAN.”

Five-year-old Benny Bahmanizad, from High Shincliffe, had been due to fly at the end of March to begin CAR T-cell therapy, a type of immunotherapy, after a huge fundraising drive.

However, the trip had to be postponed after Benny was suddenly admitted to hospital after developing a temperature, where doctors discovered an infection in his central line.

After landing in Rome on Monday (April 20), his mum, Nicola, said getting to Rome has been “an important milestone” for the family, adding they were “forever thankful” to hundreds of donors who helped fund the trip.

Benny and his family landed in Rome this week to start his treatment. (Image: Nicola Bahmanizad)

She said: “We’re so grateful to have made it to Rome. It’s just the start of the treatment journey but it feels like a really important milestone.”

Little Benny was first diagnosed with stage four neuroblastoma in February 2023, shortly after his second birthday.

His parents Nicola, 37, and Daniel, 39, first noticed something was wrong when Benny started experiencing viral infections, disrupted sleep and a loss of appetite.

They took him to the University Hospital of North Durham after he developed a limp and became unable to walk, and it was there the family were told the devastating news that their son had cancer.

Benny Bahmanizad (Image: Nicola Bahmanizad)

Benny underwent two years of intensive treatment, which included a stem cell transplant, 12 rounds of chemotherapy, 20 sessions of radiotherapy and six months of immunotherapy.

After briefly going into remission last March, a scan six months later uncovered a small irregularity in his lung and the family were told the cancer had returned, with Benny starting a second round of chemotherapy in December.

Benny Bahmanizad (Image: Nicola Bahmanizad)

Nicola and Daniel then launched a fundraiser to raise £393,000 in a desperate bid to fund CAR T-cell therapy in Rome, which is not available in the UK.

Since starting treatment this week, despite the difficulties of adjusting to a new country, Nicola said Benny has been “brave as always”.  

Benny Bahmanizad (Image: Nicola Bahmanizad)

She said: “It’s been challenging for Benny to be in such different surroundings and in a country where we don’t speak the language, but he’s been so brave as always and he’s been in good hands with all of the staff at the hospital.

“He has now had his blood cells extracted and the hospital will begin the process of engineering the cells to recognise and fight neuroblastoma cells in his body.

Benny Bahmanizad (Image: Nicola Bahmanizad)

The family plan to return to Rome every four to six weeks to complete his treatment.

The mum of two said the family were “overwhelmed with emotion” as they walked into the hospital to have Benny’s T-cells extracted from his blood.

She said: “We’ve felt overwhelmed with emotion today while walking into the hospital and then seeing the bag of cells that they extracted.

Benny Bahmanizad (Image: Nicola Bahmanizad)

“We really hope that this is the start of a new journey for Benny.

“This is something that wouldn’t have been possible without the help of all of the wonderful people who have donated and supported us in so many ways.

“It’s been such a big community effort, and it was really special to see everyone come together to support us. We’ll be forever thankful.”

Trafford is no stranger to winning silverware.

He was the hero for England in the 2023 Under-21 European Championship final, saving a last-minute penalty to help the Young Lions beat Spain and win the competition for the first time in nearly 40 years.

Last season, he amassed an incredible 29 clean sheets in 45 matches to help Scott Parker’s Burnley bounce immediately back to the Premier League and became the first goalkeeper to claim the Championship Player of the Year prize at the PFA awards.

This season, he kept another shutout to help City beat Arsenal in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, while he is also expected to start Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Southampton after saving a Mohamed Salah penalty against Liverpool in the previous round.

Trafford said: “Everyone enjoys the bigger games, the tougher games, but I might be speaking differently if we got beaten in them. The cup game you have to win, because if you don’t win then unless I get in [for] the league – which I haven’t so far – then there is no game [for me].

“It’s obviously a new experience for me because it is the first time I have had this kind of moment where you come in for the cup games, but the good thing about this club and this season is we have progressed in both the cups as far as we possibly could have so far.”

EXCLUSIVE: The expert claimed the chances of a non-SNP politician entering Bute House after May 7th are negligible.

Polling guru Sir John Curtice says there is a “less than 1% chance” of one of John Swinney’s rivals becoming First Minister after the election.

The expert said the SNP leader’s chances of staying on were so high because of his party’s strong lead in the constituencies.

The SNP continues to have a strong poll lead over Labour and Reform with less than two weeks to go.

Swinney’s party are in line to do well in the 73 constituencies, while rivals battle it out on the regional lists.

Labour insiders also admit the surge for Reform is harming their chances of winning seats off the SNP.

Speaking to the Record, Curtice said: “I’m saying there is a less than 1% chance of anybody other than John Swinney becoming First Minister.

“Why am I saying that? Well, because the SNP are something like 17 points ahead of everybody else on the constituency. QED.”

“It’s the way the system works. If you are that far ahead and you’ve got a geographically evenly spread vote, you are bound to pick up the vast bulk of constituency seats.”

READ MORE: Scottish Lib Dem leader likened indyref2 to referendum on capital punishment

OPINION

Paul Hutcheon

One poll at the weekend showed a narrow majority of pro-UK MSPs could be returned, but even in these circumstances Curtice said:

“It’s still undoubtedly the case that you are talking about a minority SNP Government.”

He also claimed an attempt to install Sarwar could result in parliament failing to elect a First Minister and Scots going “back to the polls again”.

However, a new poll by Survation for the Ballot Box Scotland website has found support for the SNP is falling.

But the snapshot still throws up a pro-independence majority of MSPs, which would be enough to re-elect John Swinney as First Minister.

Swinney is fighting for an outright SNP majority – 65 MSPs – which he says would trigger indyref2.

The SNP is on 35% in the constituencies – no change from a previous Survation poll – while Reform and Labour are tied on 20% each.

The Tories were in fourth place on 13%, followed by the Lib Dems on 10% and the Greens on 1% – they are only contesting a small number of constituencies.

On the regional Lists, the SNP was on 29% – down 3 points compared to a previous poll by the same company – with Reform on 19% and Labour on 17%.

The Tories came in at 13%, the Green polled 11% and the Lib Dems 8%.

The all-important seat projection puts the SNP on 57, a net loss of seven compared to the 2021 election and significantly short of a majority.

Reform would be second with 21 MSPs, Labour third with 18, the Tories on 13, Greens on 11 and the Lib Dems on nine.

With the Greens and the SNP commanding 68 MSPs between them, such an outcome would almost certainly result in Swinney going back to Bute House.

The poll spells bad news for Labour as their campaign is based on framing the contest as a two horse race with the SNP.

A Scottish Labour spokesperson said: “This election will be decided by the people of Scotland on May 7.

“While commentators speculate, Scottish Labour is working to earn the trust of the Scottish people and demonstrate that we can deliver the change our country so badly needs.”

The former Coronation Street star’s father, Dave Marsh, died aged 74 in 2024 after a three-year battle with the disease

Kym Marsh has said it “broke” her family when her late father revealed his “heartbreaking” prostate cancer diagnosis.

Dave Marsh died aged just 74, in 2024, after a three-year battle with the disease, after it spread to other parts of his body when he put off going to the doctor during the pandemic. Former Coronation Street star Kym, 49, has since worked to keep his legacy alive and raise awareness for prostate cancer, with her advocacy emphasising how a diagnosis can be “so devastating to a family” if it is found too late.

In an interview with the Press Association, the actress and presenter hailed her father as the “don of the family”, and said: “He was only little in terms of his height, but he had the heart of a lion. He was just dad. He was everything to everyone – he was brave, funny and so supportive. He adored the bones of my mum, they were so close. They were always together.”

Click here to sign up for more Coronation Street updates in our newsletter

Kym said her mother, Pauline, has been “left devastated” since her husband of 60 years died, and said: “When we found out dad was terminally ill and his cancer was incurable, it broke us. Nothing seemed to get him down. If he had been ill, he would get back up again.

“But he said to us: ‘This is a fight I’m going to lose, I can’t beat this one.’ That was devastating to hear him say that, and for us to realise that was really heartbreaking.”

Prostate Cancer UK states the condition is the most common cancer in men and one in eight men will receive a diagnosis in their lifetime, with the risk increasing if you are over 50, black, or have a family history of the disease.

Prostate cancer develops slowly, so there may be no signs for years, but signs may include an increased need to urinate, straining while urinating and a feeling that the bladder has not fully emptied, according to the NHS.

Kym said that “trying to help other people” was the “first thing” her dad wanted to do after finding out about having prostate cancer, and the pair campaigned to raise awareness in the years leading up to his death.

The star and her family have since continued to dedicate themselves to campaigning for prostate cancer, and her son-in-law Mikey Hoszowskyj ran the TCS London Marathon in 2024 to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK. She said: “We’ve done everything we can to make sure that dad’s legacy is continuing, and that his memory lives on and to hopefully help other people.

“When we come together as a family, we all do very much feel like he’s with us. He is always in our memories. I strongly believe that my dad is always with us, on everything that we do.”

The former Hear’Say singer also said she was so moved when her future daughter-in-law Carmen Dickinson offered to run the London Marathon on Sunday in memory of her father. Kym said: “(Carmen) never met my dad, but it’s just so lovely she wants to do this for us and for him, and for prostate cancer.

“It just was so gorgeous. It’s a very personal journey that we all went on with dad and for her to do this means such a lot to us. She has got such a good heart. We’ll all be heading down there to cheer her on. She’s a gorgeous girl, and I know she’s gonna absolutely smash it.”

She also said her and her family raise awareness for prostate cancer as they hope to bring “something positive” out of her father’s death, adding: “It is so devastating to a family. It was devastating to us and to my dad to think that he’d left it too late. And that’s something we don’t want to happen to anyone else.”

NEW YORK (AP) — A firefighter whose truck collided with an Air Canada Express jet last month on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, killing both pilots, heard an air traffic controller warn “stop, stop, stop” but didn’t know who it was for, federal investigators said Thursday.

Just seconds earlier, the controller had cleared the fire truck to cross the runway, but the truck started moving while warning lights that act as a stop sign for crossing traffic were still lit, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a preliminary report on the March 22 crash.

Because the truck lacked a transponder, a surface monitoring system in the control tower was unable to reliably determine its position, “did not predict a potential conflict” with the landing plane and did not generate an audio or visual alert, the report said, pointing to a series of failures that contributed to the crash.

“There were so many opportunities where this accident could have been prevented,” aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said after reviewing the report.

In addition to the control tower and truck driver, he said the report suggests the pilots had a chance to recognize the danger and pull up. But, he said, they may have been too dialed into landing.

After the air traffic controller’s initial stop warning, the fire truck’s turret operator heard the controller say, “Truck 1, stop, stop, stop,” and realized he was telling the truck to halt, the report said. By then, the truck was already on the runway as Air Canada Express Flight 8646 was landing and speeding toward it.

Aviation safety consultant John Cox, CEO of Safety Operating Systems, said it might be understandable that the truck driver didn’t recognize the first “stop” call was meant for him because the controller had just been directing a plane on a taxiway and didn’t say Truck 1 at the start of the command.

The turret operator, one of two crew members in the fire truck, told investigators that as the vehicle turned left, he saw the airplane’s lights on the runway, the report said. The plane registered a speed of 104 mph (167 kph) just before the collision. The truck was going about 30 mph (48 kph).

The fire truck was leading a convoy of vehicles, including four fire trucks, a police car and a stair truck, responding to an emergency involving a strong odor that was making flight attendants feel ill aboard a departing United Airlines jet.

The air traffic controller cleared the truck to cross the runway just 12 seconds before the plane touched down, investigators said. About eight seconds later, the controller frantically began calling for the truck to stop.

Pilots killed, 39 people hurt, including fire crew members

The plane, a CRJ900 regional jet from Montreal, was carrying 76 people. Pilots Antoine Forest, 30, and Mackenzie Gunther, 24, were killed. It was the first deadly crash at LaGuardia in 34 years.

In addition, 39 people were taken to hospitals, including six described as seriously injured. The two fire truck crew members are recovering at home after being released from the hospital, according to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates LaGuardia.

A flight attendant still strapped in her seat survived after being thrown onto the tarmac.

Another flight attendant reported taking his seat in the rear of the plane for landing and described the flight as normal until he felt an impact, the report said. He didn’t know what had happened and attempted to call the pilots but received no response, the report said.

The Port Authority said it is conducting a comprehensive review of the NTSB’s initial findings. “Our focus is straightforward: ensure our safety procedures and protocols are as strong as they can be and take action to strengthen them as needed,” the agency said.

LaGuardia was busier than usual the night of the crash because flight delays pushed the number of arrivals and departures after 10 p.m. to more than double what was scheduled, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Two air traffic controllers were on duty, consistent with normal scheduling, the report said.

Planes were landing every few minutes, with a dozen flights arriving between 11 p.m. and when the crash happened less than 40 minutes later. At the same time, the controllers had to shuffle their duties because of the odor issue on the United plane.

While the more senior controller coordinated the United emergency response, the other controller took over directing vehicles on the ground while continuing to authorize takeoffs and landings.

“These controllers were just way busy, just too busy,” Guzzetti said.

Airport had technology designed to prevent crashes

The warning lights — known as runway entrance lights — were lit until the fire truck reached the edge of the runway, about three seconds before the collision, the report said. By design, they turn off two or three seconds before a plane reaches a runway intersection, the report said.

The runway warning lights in place at 20 of the nation’s busiest airports are one of the backup systems designed to help prevent a crash. Cox said the truck should have never entered the runway while the warning lights were illuminated.

“That’s an automated system so even though the controller says you’re cleared to cross, the lights mean that there’s an airplane that is either on the runway or about to be,” Cox said. “So the truck driver is going to have some questions to answer there.”

LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system that combines radar data with information from transponders inside planes and ground vehicles to help prevent runway incursions. Controllers have a display in the tower that’s supposed to show the location of every plane and vehicle.

The system, known as ASDE-X, didn’t sound an alarm partly because the radar had trouble distinguishing the closely spaced trucks and the radar targets intermittently merged on the display. Only two targets were displayed just before the crash, even though there were seven vehicles. None were equipped with transponders that would have helped the system to precisely track their movements.

According to air traffic control transmissions, Flight 8646 was cleared to land on Runway 4 at 11:35 p.m.

About two minutes later — and 25 seconds before the crash — the fire crew asked to cross the same runway, which was between the airport’s fire station and where the United Airlines jet had parked.

Five seconds later, with Flight 8646 approaching the runway a little more than 100 feet (30 meters) above the ground, an air traffic controller cleared the fire truck to cross.

Then, just nine seconds before the crash, the controller frantically told the fire crew: “Stop, stop, stop, stop. Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop, stop.” A second later, the plane’s landing gear touched down.

___

Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. ___

This story has been corrected to show that pilot Antoine Forest was 30, not 24; and pilot Mackenzie Gunther was 24, not 30.