https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entr...utdown-air-safety_us_5c33db0fe4b0116c11eef56b 01/07/2019 09:45 pm ET Nation’s Pilots Warn Donald Trump That Shutdown Threatens Air Safety Fewer TSA agents and FAA safety inspectors may put “passengers and airline crews at risk,” a pilots union says. By Mary Papenfuss A letter from the national union representing 61,000 pilots has sent a letter directly to President Donald Trump warning him that the government shutdown is threatening the “safety and security of airspace.” “The nation’s airspace system is a complex transportation network that involves government and industry partnerships to function properly, and the disruptions being caused by the shutdown are threatening the safe operations of this network,” stated the letter sent last Wednesday by Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, on behalf of union members. The letter has surfaced just as passengers are reporting growing lines at airports and as Transportation Security Administration officers are reportedly calling in sick to work at paying jobs. Forbes reported Monday that some checkpoint waits at New York’s La Guardia Airport and Sea-Tac Airport in Washington state were as long as 90 minutes. The shutdown is also affecting staffing levels in air traffic control towers, according to Forbes. DePete urged Trump in his letter to “take the necessary steps to immediately end the shutdown of government agencies that is adversely affecting the safety, security and efficiency of our national airspace system.” The union president noted the importance of the Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Department in safe flying. “When any of their responsibilities are placed on pause due to a shutdown there are safety, security and efficiency gaps that immediately emerge,” DePete wrote. The partial shutdown affects some 800,000 federal workers, but about half of those are considered essential workers — including agents of TSA, which is part of DHS. They are expected to perform their jobs without pay during the shutdown. That has driven some TSA workers to use sick time to work elsewhere to pay the bills, according to the union. TSA officials have conceded that the number of TSA workers on the job was down, but said Friday that the reduction hadn’t yet affected passenger checkpoint wait times. That appears to be changing as air travel begins to pick up again after the traditional slow time after the winter holidays.
It is beyond pathetic a union representing 61,000 pilots has to tell The President of The United States he is risking Americans safety. MAGA!!!
You can actually make the case that the TSA adds little to no value to air safety. All it does is impositions and delays passengers while adding nearly no safety improvement. The proper way to improve air safety is to profile passengers. The Israeli's have proven this conclusively. Screening every passenger adds nearly no value.
You go through security when flying out of Israel though. They don't just let you walk on without scanning your bags or going through a detector. Screening every passenger seems like it adds no value but letting one mis-screened guy get through with a gun or knife leads to a significant disaster. I don't mind the extra 10-20 minutes it takes to get through security screening. TSA has pre check to profile passengers so they can go through quicker and now we have CLEAR. I rarely spend more than 10 -15 minutes going through security and worth it so I am not the one on the plane where screening fucked up.
Basic profiling would have stopped every one of the 911 hijackers from boarding the plane without an additional search. Prior 911 we never had significant issues domestically with air travel safety. The TSA as a solution is completely overblown and adds little safety for the tremendous cost.
%% Exactly; +an un guarderd border is much more dangerous.Could TSA have prevented Trade Tower crash??-Not likely.Private sector security could most likely do a better job more cheaply.
Well like I said it is a minor inconvenience and TSA is not just tasked with stopping middle eastern hijackers. Prior to 9/11 it was done in most airports by private screening companies. Now under federal control, TSA screens for contraband, illegal drugs, weapons and bomb making materials. Any airline flying into the U.S. has to follow TSA procedures so it makes it safer for passengers flying back to the U.S. from overseas as well, not just domestic flights. When I fly back from overseas you can see the difference in the security for U.S. bound flights. (Ever see the security El Al flights undergo from outside of Israel, no more El Al hijackings either). TSA also serves a DEA type function in ports of entry where illegal drugs entered in the past hidden in luggae/carry ons and on persons. TSA came out of 9/11 but their role goes beyond stopping terrorism. Research the amount of drunk people pulled off of airplanes who were being a safety risk and imagine they have 4 inch blades on them (which was allowed) or worse. Many policies were in response to actual attacks planned on U.S. airlines - shoes, liquids, printer cartridges. These are all banned or controlled because of actual attempts to use them as a source of explosion. Many might think TSA is overblown but 15 minutes of passing through security is not a big deal now with all the technology out there that can be used for injury/death or impair the safety of the aircraft. Don't forget TSA is not just for domestic flights, also don't forget about the number of people who connect through the U.S. to domestic flights. Terrorists will exploit any weakness so if security is not tight then they will find a way. God forbid you are on the plane where TSA screening is taken away and a new form of bomb in an ipad is not screened. It just takes one attack and I would rather have 15 minutes of security knowing I am safe on any international or domestic flight. Don't forget TSA also screens luggage before it goes on the plane.
Under current TSA laws the box cutters and knives would not have been allowed on the plane. The guys would also have appeared on the centralized no fly list that now exists but did not before a central federal government agency. Private security would actually charge the government more for private qualified people.
%% Private sector does most everything better- you work for the gov-tell the truth??NO need to create a new a gov agency; FBI + air marshalls could have handled it fine. Pres Ronald Reagan said the gov is not the solution+its the problem.He won an electoral vote victory that has never been beaten.
This is something that should be centralized....you have one company doing it one way at Dulles Airport and another doing it differently in Newark. This is outside the jurisdiction of the FBI (domestic law enforcement agency) and air marshalls would cost a lot more to have one on every single flight. reagan was not talking about safety of domestic and international airports and airplanes. This is not a competition or over regulation of industry as reagan focused on, it is just security.