Plane crash investigators held up by airport delays as partial U.S. shutdown continues

Specialists investigating the Air Canada plane crash at LaGuardia that killed two pilots were held up by security delays at other airports Monday, according to the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), as a partial U.S. government shutdown is causing long lineups across the country.

NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a Monday press conference that some of her investigators were delayed getting to New York.

"We have our air traffic control specialist who was in line with TSA for three hours, until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through so we can get her here," Homendy said. "So it's been a really big challenge to get the entire team here."

Hundreds of thousands of Department of Homeland Security workers, including from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), have worked without pay since Congress failed to renew the department's funding last month. 

Many TSA agents have called in sick or quit their jobs as a result. The staffing shortages have forced some airports to occasionally close checkpoints, leading to significant wait times.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has sent armed Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers to more than a dozen airports to help manage the long lines, in a move that has drawn criticism and raised concerns about travellers' safety.

Aviation consultant Scott Hamilton, managing director of Leeham Company, says he cancelled a Thursday flight from Chicago to Atlanta, where people were reporting wait times of four to six hours. 

On the other hand, he did a round trip to Seattle from Chicago last week and “breezed through” security at both airports.

“Some airports are operating as appears to be normal. Other airports are a complete disaster,” he said.

Hamilton says the degree to which each airport is affected depends on how many TSA employees have quit or called in sick.

But the deployment of ICE agents raises further alarms, he says, especially for foreign travellers who may already be hesitant.

His advice to Canadians is to avoid flying to the U.S. if you can.

“If the trip is discretionary in any way, shape or form, or you have a viable alternative … go someplace else than the United States,” he said. “And I say that as an American.” 

On Monday, nearly 11 per cent of TSA agents scheduled to work — more than 3,200 — missed their shift, according to DHS.