As Transportation Security Administration staffing shortages snarled airport operations across the country Monday, specialists from the National Transportation Safety Board, the agency responsible for aviation safety, were among those caught in the long lines for security, the agency’s chair said at a news conference.
Jennifer Homendy, the NTSB chair, said long airport security lines caused by the Department of Homeland Security shutdown were one of several issues that delayed the start of her investigation at LaGuardia Airport.
Homendy’s agency responded Monday after an Air Canada plane collided with a fire truck shortly after it landed at LaGuardia late Sunday night. Other factors that delayed her team included LaGuardia’s closure until 2 p.m. because of the crash and a ground stop at Newark Liberty International Airport.
“It’s been a really big challenge to get the entire team here, and they’re still arriving as I speak,” Homendy said.
One of the agency’s air traffic control specialists was caught in a three-hour line for security at a Houston airport — Homendy did not specify which one — until the NTSB called “to beg to see if we can get her through, so we can get her here,” Homendy said.
Investigators were continuing to arrive at LaGuardia by plane, train and automobile Monday, Homendy added. She drove there with a team from Washington, D.C.
Team members began arriving at around 3 a.m. Monday and would continue arriving until about 1 a.m. Tuesday morning, she said. The team had not yet had a full day of investigation and was therefore unable to provide much additional detail on the crash that killed two Air Canada pilots.
“What I’m going to tell you is we are world renowned investigators,” Homendy said. “But we deal in facts, and if we are not able to verify those yet — and we haven’t been able to — we can’t provide those.”