UPDATE: Sick Leave staffing issues – FAA has halted flights into New York’s LaGuardia

Well this is not good.

Apparently due to a lack of air traffic control staff, the FAA is halting flights into New York’s LaGuardia airport:



And Pelosi is sending the House home on a three day weekend? That’s not gonna be a good look for her…

Seriously, this is when the real pressure starts to mount and someone has to give.

It’s one thing to have furloughed workers, but for infrastructure to come to a halt is big.

UPDATE:

Here’s the latest from Fox5NY on what happened. Apparently people were taking sick leave today that led to the disruption:

Flights arriving at several airports in the Northeast were being delayed Friday morning because of air traffic control staffing issues at air traffic centers in Jacksonville, Florida and a Washington D.C. center that controls high-altitude air traffic over seven states.

The FAA said that a Traffic Management Program (ground stop) was in effect for traffic arriving at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport and that inbound flights were delayed an average of 41 minutes.

The FAA said that travelers should check with their departure airport to see if they may be affected. There were also gate hold and taxi delays between 15 minutes and 29 minutes in length at the airport.

Newark International Airport was also affected with up to 44 minute taxi and gate hold delays.

Delays were also reported at other airports in the Northeast, including Philadelphia, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Dulles International Airport, and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.

The FAA issued a statement saying: “We have experienced a slight increase in sick leave at two facilities. We are mitigating the impact by augmenting staffing, rerouting traffic, and increasing spacing between aircraft when needed.”

The White House says President Trump had been briefed on the situation and was in regular contact with officials at the Department of Transportation and the FAA.

Air traffic controllers have been working without pay since the partial federal shutdown. There has been a growing staffing problem as the shutdown is now 35 days long and some employees have missed two pay checks.


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