In what may be a $750,000 mistake for Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ), one of their airport rescue trucks at JFK became severly damaged while driving around the airport’s taxiways.
The apparent path to the wrecked vehicle indicates that the truck was driving near the beginning of runway 13R, exited the pavement at the end of a taxiway, possibly bouncing hard into the dirt, causing the axles for both front and aft wheel bases to snap.
PANYNJ tells NYCAviation that the truck experienced a mechanical problem and became disabled. The incident caused a Port Authority police officer to receive a non-life threatening ankle injury and was transported to North Shore hospital.
Due to having a large fleet of rescue equipment, the truck being taken out of service has had no effect on JFK Airport’s ARFF index, which is the measurement of an airport’s rescue capabilities that legally allow aircraft of various passenger capacities to legally operate at an airport.