On Approach To LaGuardia, Pilot Asks JFK Tower To Confirm Clearance To Land A Delta Connection flight was minutes away from landing at LaGuardia airport March 15 when the pilot learned he was mistakenly speaking to the tower at JFK airport instead. Audio obtained by CBS News records the crew of Flight 5752, an Embraer E-170 flying from Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) , operated by Republic Airways, attempting to confirm a landing at “Runway 4″ at LaGuardia while speaking to the JFK tower. The pilot was roughly 10 miles from LaGuardia when he contacted JFK. Robert Sumwalt, the former chair of the NTSB, told CBS: “If the airplane had landed at LaGuardia without receiving landing clearance, it would have been a very bad mistake. I flew for 31 years, I was an airline pilot for 24 years, I’ve not heard of this particular error occurring.”
