The cascading effect from the airport’s closure adds to an already challenging time at many airports in the U.S.
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed Monday following a deadly runway crash at LaGuardia Airport in New York, furthering the airport woes felt by Americans traveling the skies this month.
The pilot and copilot of an Air Canada regional jet were killed and dozens of others injured when the plane struck a fire truck on a runway while landing at LaGuardia early Monday morning.
The airport halted all flights in and out until Monday afternoon at the earliest, resulting in more than 400 canceled flights, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware. According to the site, more than half of the 953 canceled flights in the U.S. Monday were to or from LaGuardia.
According to FlightAware’s “misery map,” which highlights the regional impacts of flight problems, the crash in New York triggered a ripple effect of travel disruptions across the East Coast and beyond. Flights were diverted away from LaGuardia, one of the busiest airports in the U.S. FlightAware showed the majority of rerouted flights were being sent to Washington D.C. and Boston airports.
When an airport the size of LaGuardia shuts down, impacts aren’t likely to remain isolated to the region. Because flights are highly coordinated across airports, a shutdown at one airport could result in delays at another across the country while airlines work to find a new plane to pick up passengers.
The cascading effect from LaGuardia’s closure adds to an already challenging time at many airports in the U.S. Flights and connections that rely on planes grounded at LaGuardia are likely to be delayed or canceled until a replacement is found or LaGuardia opens for operations again. That’s in addition to unusually long security wait times plaguing numerous airports.
Funding lapsed for the vast majority of federal workers at airports, including TSA, after Congress has failed to pass a spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security.
The vast majority of employees at TSA are considered essential and continue to work during the government funding lapse, but they are doing so without pay. Call-out rates have started to increase at some airports, leading to longer screening times for many passengers.
For many airports, the delays can be hours long as security lines stretch outside. At MSY in New Orleans, for example, TSA lines have for weeks been extending into the airport’s nearby parking garage as fliers wait hours to even enter the building.
President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of ICE agents to airports in a series of posts Saturday and Sunday on Truth Social.
“On Monday, ICE will be going to airports to help our wonderful TSA Agents who have stayed on the job,” the president wrote.
The president did not specify what role the ICE agents would take on, which raised some concerns, as TSA agents are specially trained to perform their duties.
“THEY WILL DO A FANTASTIC JOB,” the president continued. “The great Tom Homan is in charge!”
U.S. border czar Tom Homan said plans were in the works to send federal agents to airports starting Monday to assist with security, while the partial government shutdown impacting federal airline workers remains at an impasse.
Homan was a guest Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where he insisted that a well-developed plan was underway for U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents to deploy to airports starting Monday to help support security efforts.
