Concern Grows Over Aviation Safety As Government Shutdown Continues

Aviation industry leaders are worried. The federal government’s partial shutdown is now well into its second month, and yesterday the presidents of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, Air Line Pilots Association and Association of Flight Attendants issued a joint statement that reads in part “We cannot even calculate the level of risk currently at play, nor predict the point at which the entire system will break.” 

The leaders note that “major airports are already seeing security checkpoint closures, with many more potentially to follow,” and the Transportation Security Administration has reported work outages of up to 10 percent because employees cannot afford to work without their normal bi-weekly paychecks; back pay has been promised at the end of the shutdown, but there’s no end in sight and agents cannot wait that long.

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