By David Shepardson, Rich McKay and Andy Sullivan
NEW YORK/ATLANTA, March 23 (Reuters) – Two pilots died in a runway accident that shut New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Monday and U.S. President Donald Trump deployed armed immigration agents to help ease hours-long security lines at major airports strained by personnel shortages, although their impact was not immediately clear.
The crash between an Air Canada Express jet and a fire truck at LaGuardia injured dozens of passengers and led to hundreds of flight cancellations at the start of the working week in the latest disruption for airports and carriers that have been knocked off-kilter by a weeks-long budget standoff in Congress.
The crashed jet remained visible at the airport on Monday, its crushed cockpit pointing skyward.
The two young pilots who died in the incident had just started their careers, said Bryan Bedford, head of the Federal Aviation Administration. “It’s an absolute tragedy,” he said at a press conference.
ICE DEPLOYED TO AIRPORTS
Travelers have endured hours-long waits at security screening checkpoints in recent days as resignations and absentee rates have risen among Transportation Security Administration employees who have gone without pay for more than a month.
“If you work, you should get your money. Why should that be a problem?” said traveler Edwin Blain, 60, who showed up four hours early to avoid missing his flight at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, the nation’s busiest, where 42% of TSA agents were absent on Sunday.
On Monday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents with bulletproof vests and pistols were taken off the streets, where they normally focus on arresting immigrants the government seeks to deport, and redeployed in airports in Atlanta, New York and New Jersey, according to Reuters witnesses.
Trump said they were being sent to airports to help TSA agents reduce security screening lines, over the objections of the TSA workers’ labor union, who said ICE agents had not undergone the months of airport security training needed.
At several airports, the ICE agents were seen standing near lengthy security lines while TSA agents continued to operate the X-ray machines and scanning systems, and the ICE agents’ functions were not immediately clear.
For the most part, they were not wearing the masks that have become a divisive symbol of Trump’s immigration crackdown and a subject of negotiations in Congress.
White House immigration czar Tom Homan said agents had been deployed to 14 airports, in cities including New York, Chicago, Atlanta and Houston.
Authorities said the agents would provide crowd control, but Trump said they could also make arrests, raising concerns the chaotic raids that have played out on the streets of Minneapolis, Chicago and elsewhere might come to the nation’s airports as well.
“They’re able to now arrest illegals as they come into the country, that’s very fertile territory,” Trump told reporters, although all international arrivals at U.S. airports already have their passports and other documents checked by Customs and Border Protection agents, who deport those without legal authorization to enter. “But that’s not why they’re there,” Trump said. “They’re really there to help.”
In Washington, there was little sign the standoff between Trump’s Republicans and opposition Democrats would end soon. Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security without new curbs on immigration agents, who have killed U.S. citizens and sparked public outrage during their crackdown.
Though the White House has engaged in talks with lawmakers, Trump said on Monday he would not sign off on any compromise until Congress first passed a series of voting restrictions that Democrats have rejected, adding another potential roadblock to a deal.
Airlines are also facing rising fuel costs, which have surged since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran more than three weeks ago. United Airlines is cutting flights through the busy summer travel season, citing elevated oil prices.
LAGUARDIA COLLISION KILLS TWO, SEVERAL HOSPITALIZED
In New York, the pilot and first officer of an Air Canada Express jet were killed when the plane collided with a fire truck while taxiing. Another nine people were hospitalized with serious injuries. The CRJ-900 plane, operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation, had been carrying 72 passengers and four crew members.
Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board were able to retrieve cockpit voice and flight data recorders after cutting a hole in the plane, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said.
Some 572 flights were canceled, more than 50% of LaGuardia’s daily total. Some flights resumed on Monday afternoon, but the FAA said the runway where the accident took place would be closed until Friday, which will likely cause delays throughout the week.
U.S. aviation has faced a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers, but U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that was not a problem at LaGuardia. “It’s a very well-staffed airport,” he said at a news briefing.
Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said earlier in the day the fire truck was responding to a separate aircraft that had reported an “issue with odor.”
According to air traffic control audio, a controller can be heard telling the craft that a fire truck was en route and clearing a truck to cross a runway. Moments later, the controller can be heard saying: “Stop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop, truck 1, stop.”
A separate 35-minute ground stop at nearby Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday morning added to delays after air traffic controllers evacuated their tower because of a burning smell from an elevator, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
(Reporting by David Shepardson in New York, Jayla Whitfield-Anderson and Rich McKay in Atlanta, and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Additional reporting by and Bhargav Acharya; Writing by Andy Sullivan and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Scott Malone, David Gaffen, Bill Berkrot and Chris Reese)
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