Fire trucks at DFW Airport and Dallas Love Field currently lack transponders that the NTSB says may have helped prevent a deadly collision between a plane and a fire truck in New York in March. After a deadly runway collision in New York, where a plane hit a fire truck, NBC 5 Investigates examine d whether North Texas airports have the technology needed to prevent something similar from happening here. NBC 5 Investigates found that fire trucks at both Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field do not currently have location transponders — technology the National Transportation Safety Board said may have helped prevent the New York crash. A DFW Airport spokesperson told NBC 5 Investigates the airport’s fire trucks are expected to get location transponders later this year. A Love Field spokesperson said that the airport is actively preparing to launch its transponder program in the coming months. The issue has taken on new urgency following a new NTSB report on the runway collision at New York’s LaGuardia Airport in March. Investigators said an air traffic controller cleared a fire truck to cross the runway just seconds before a plane touched down. That happened even though LaGuardia is equipped with a highly advanced runway collision detection system known as ASDE‑X, which uses ground radar to help controllers track aircraft and vehicles near runways. But the NTSB said the radar could only intermittently track the fire truck involved in the crash because multiple vehicles were near the runway, and none were equipped with transponders that send precise location and direction data. The report said, “Without transponder‑equipped vehicles…the system was unable to correlate the track of the airplane with the track of Truck 1…and did not predict a potential conflict with the landing airplane.” DFW Airport is equipped with an ASDE‑X system similar to LaGuardia. And like the New York airport, a DFW spokesperson told NBC 5 Investigates that its fire trucks do not currently have location transponders. The airport said they are expected later this year. DFW said its fire trucks have an onboard warning system that alerts the driver to potential runway hazards. Dallas Love Field does not have ASDE‑X, but the airport recently upgraded to a different FAA‑supported runway monitoring system known as the Surface Awareness Initiative, or SAI. According to the FAA, SAI is designed to enhance runway safety by allowing air traffic controllers to see the location of aircraft and ground vehicles on their displays, but only vehicles equipped with transponders are visible in the system. A Love Field spokesperson told NBC 5 Investigates that none of the airport’s fire trucks currently have those transponders. The spokesperson said Love Field will begin installing transponders in the months ahead, though the airport did not provide a more specific timeline. In the meantime, Love Field said its fire trucks are equipped with smart tablets that show the driver nearby air traffic locations in real time. The FAA has strongly encouraged airports to equip all ground vehicles with transponders and has a program to help airports pay for that equipment. Transponders typically cost about $ 3,000 per unit. Former NTSB investigator Jeff Guzzetti said the New York crash investigation shines an important light on the issue of how to prevent vehicles from straying into the path of a plane. “I think there’s going to be some questions about training and equipage of these vehicles, these ground vehicles, the fire trucks. How are they trained? What types of transmitters do they have inside of them to help controllers?” Guzzetti told NBC 5 Investigates. FAA data shows that since 2023, DFW has had 45 runway incursions where a vehicle or another aircraft crossed into a plane’s path. Three of those happened last year. At Love Field, there have been 15 incursions since 2023, seven of them happened in 2025. The FAA says all of the incidents at DFW and Love Field were considered low-severity, with enough time or distance to avoid a collision. ...read more read less