National Transportation Safety Board members were deeply troubled Tuesday over years of ignored warnings about helicopter traffic dangers and other problems, long before last year’s collision between an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk, which killed 67 people.
The board listened to hours of testimony from investigators who outlined their findings in the collision and subsequent crash near Reagan National Airport nearly a year ago. Key factors emerged, including “overwhelmed” air traffic controllers, a failure to alert the jet’s pilot about the other aircraft and a history of missed opportunities to reroute helicopter traffic.
“We know people were raising the concerns, people were saying this was dangerous five, 10 years ago, and nobody was really listening,” NTSB member Todd Inman said of staffing.
In her opening remarks, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said it was a series of “deep, underlying systemic failures” that “aligned to create the conditions that led to the crash.”
Homendy also called the “similarities” between the D.C. crash and previous such disasters — including a 1969 midair collision that killed 83 people near Shelbyville, Indiana, and a 2019 midair collision that killed six people in Ketchikan, Alaska — “chilling.”
“We could have blamed flight crews, individual pilots, maintenance personnel or controllers, but we didn’t because we have long, long recognized that human error is a symptom of a system that needs to be redesigned,” Homedy said of the three crashes.
At one point during the hearing, Inman said he had responded to 91 aviation fatality incidents in 2025.
“I did 13 family briefings, and I am tired of doing them,” Inman said to the families of the victims at the hearing. “And I am sorry for you, because the pages of these reports are written in your family members’ blood. So with that again, I am sorry that we have to be here.”
National Transportation Safety Board Chair Jennifer Homendy and other board members Todd Inman and Michael Graham listen to testimony during a board meeting on Jan. 27, 2026, in Washington, D.C.
Bonnie Cash-Pool / Getty Images
Family members in the room listened intently during the hearing. Some were escorted out, including two in tears, as an animation of the flights began. Others entered the auditorium wearing black shirts bearing the names of crash victims.
“The negligence of not fixing things that needed to be fixed killed my brother and 66 other people. So, I’m not very happy,” Kristen Miller-Zahn, who watched from the front row, said during a break.
The NTSB’s job at this point is to determine the biggest factors in the crash and make recommendations. Victims’ families say they hope there’s meaningful change.
Everyone aboard the jet, flying from Wichita, Kansas, and the helicopter died when the two aircraft collided and plummeted into the icy Potomac River. It was the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001, and the victims included 28 members of the figure skating community.
The Federal Aviation Administration last week made a permanent change to ensure helicopters and planes no longer share the same airspace around the airport.
Recommendations to move the helicopter routing away from the airport after a near midair collision in 2013 were rejected by the FAA.
“We should be angry, because for years no one listened,” Homendy told reporters prior to the hearing. “This was preventable, this was 100% preventable.”
Homendy said she couldn’t believe the FAA didn’t realize the helicopter route in use during the crash didn’t provide adequate separation from planes landing on Reagan’s secondary runway. She noted that the FAA had refused to add detailed information about helicopter routes to pilots’ charts so they could better understand the risks.
“We know over time concerns were raised repeatedly, went unheard, squashed — however you want to put it — stuck in red tape and bureaucracy of a very large organization,” Homendy said. “Repeated recommendations over the years.”
NTSB investigator Katherine Wilson said an air traffic controller felt a “little overwhelmed” when traffic volume increased to 10 aircraft about 10 to 15 minutes before the collision, but then “felt the volume was manageable when one or two helicopters left the airspace.”
Yet about 90 seconds before the collision, Wilson said, “traffic volume increased to a maximum of 12 aircraft consisting of seven airplanes and five helicopters. Radio communication showed that the local controller was shifting focus between airborne, ground and transiting aircraft.”
The workload “reduced his situational awareness,” Wilson said.
Wilson also noted that their investigation found that the Reagan controllers working during the midair crash had not undergone a specific training workshop that may have helped them be more prepared for the situation.
NTSB investigator Brice Banning said the pilots of both aircraft were qualified, had adequate rest and no medical conditions that would have barred them from flying. He also said both aircraft had been properly equipped and maintained.
They also reiterated previous findings that the helicopter pilots were likely flying at a higher altitude than the chopper’s altimeter was reading. The collision occurred at about 300 feet, while the maximum altitude for helicopters on that route near the airport is 200 feet.
NTSB investigator Dr. Jana Price said interviews with current and former Reagan tower staff found that morale at the tower “had been low for years” prior to the crash. She said that appeared to be due to a 2018 decision by the FAA to downgrade the DCA tower from a level 10 to a level 9 facility, which is a metric based on the volume of air traffic an airport receives.
NTSB investigator Brian Soper explained that downgrading the facility meant it “cannot attract the experience or get the talent” that is needed “to run a very complex air traffic control operation.”
NTSB investigators also showed a video animation to demonstrate how difficult it would have been for the pilots in both aircraft to spot the other amid the lights of Washington. The animation also showed how the windshields of both aircraft and the helicopter crew’s night vision goggles restricted views.
NTSB investigators believe the helicopter pilots never saw the airliner, and they said it appears the airline pilots may not have spotted the chopper until about two seconds before the collision.
The Reagan controller received a conflict alert when the two aircraft were still 1.6 miles apart, the NTSB investigators testified, and said an urgent safety alert that they were on a collision course should have been given at that point.
“The controller should have issued a safety, would have been the most appropriate thing at that time,” Soper said.
Doug Lane, whose wife and son — Christine Lane and Spencer Lane — were killed in the crash, told CBS News outside the hearing that “100%, I feel like the FAA failed me and my family.”
Rachel Feres, who lost her cousin Peter Livingston and his wife and two young daughters, told the Associated Press she was hoping for “clarity and urgency” from the NTSB process.
“I hope that we see a clear path through the recommendations they offer to ensure that this never happens again,” Feres said. “That nobody else has to wake up to hear that an entire branch of their family tree is gone, or their wife is gone or the child is gone.”
Whether that happens depends on how Congress, the Army and the Trump administration respond after the hearing. A pending bill would require all aircraft to have advanced locator systems to help avoid collisions.
Price said NTSB investigators also found the FAA is not using a standardized approach for how it defines near-miss events between aircraft.
“It’s something that we think is necessary, to have more of a standard definition of what constitutes a close proximity event, so that there can be a way of comparing one airport to another, or looking at trends over time, rather than what is kind of a hodgepodge, if you will, right now, of different ways of measuring this,” Price said.
Even before Tuesday, the NTSB had already spelled out many key factors that contributed to the crash. Investigators said controllers in the Reagan tower had been overly reliant on asking pilots to spot other aircraft and maintain visual separation.
The night of the crash, the controller approved the Black Hawk’s request to do that twice. However, the investigation has shown that the helicopter pilots likely never spotted the American Airlines plane as the jet circled to land on the little-used secondary runway.
In a statement Tuesday, the FAA said it has reduced hourly plane arrivals at Reagan airport from 36 to 30 and increased staff. The agency said it has 22 certified controllers in the tower and eight more in training.
“We will diligently consider any additional recommendations” from the NTSB, the FAA said.
Several high-profile crashes and close calls followed the D.C. collision, alarming the flying public. But NTSB statistics show that the total number of crashes last year was the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, with 1,405 nationwide.
The NTSB will recommend additional action, and the families of the victims have said they hope that leads to meaningful changes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An air traffic controller felt a “little overwhelmed” by numerous aircraft around Reagan airport just minutes before an American Airlines jet collided midair last year with an Army Black Hawk helicopter, killing 67 people, an investigator said Tuesday at a National Transportation Safety Board hearing to determine the biggest factors in the crash.
During the hearing’s early stages, some themes emerged: The jet’s pilot had no warning about the helicopter, and airspace was crowded the night of Jan. 29, 2025.
“It will not be an easy day,” NTSB board member Todd Inman said in his opening remarks. “There is no singular person to blame for this. These were systemic issues across multiple organizations.”
Everyone aboard the jet, flying from Wichita, Kansas, and the helicopter died when the two aircraft collided and plummeted into the icy Potomac River. It was the deadliest plane crash on U.S. soil since 2001.
The Federal Aviation Administration made several changes after the crash to ensure helicopters and planes no longer share the same airspace around the nation’s capital, and last week made those changes permanent. The NTSB will recommend additional action, and families of the victims have said they hope that leads to meaningful change.
NTSB chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said she couldn’t believe the FAA didn’t realize the helicopter route in use during the crash didn’t provide adequate separation from planes landing on Reagan’s secondary runway.
“We know over time concerns were raised repeatedly, went unheard, squashed — however you want to put it — stuck in red tape and bureaucracy of a very large organization,” Homendy said. “Repeated recommendations over the years.”
NTSB investigator Katherine Wilson said an air traffic controller felt a “little overwhelmed” when traffic volume increased to 10 aircraft about 10 to 15 minutes before the collision, but then “felt the volume was manageable when one or two helicopters left the airspace.”
Yet about 90 seconds before the collision, Wilson said, “traffic volume increased to a maximum of 12 aircraft consisting of seven airplanes and five helicopters. Radio communication showed that the local controller was shifting its focus between airborne, ground and transiting aircraft.”
The workload “reduced his situational awareness,” Wilson said.
NTSB investigators showed a video animation to demonstrate how difficult it would have been for the pilots in both aircraft to spot the other amid the lights of Washington. The animation also showed how the windshields of both aircraft and the helicopter crew’s night vision goggles restricted views.
Some people were escorted from the room, including two in tears, as an animation of the flights began. Several entered the auditorium wearing black shirts bearing the names of crash victims.
“I hope that we see a clear path through the recommendations they offer to ensure that this never happens again,” Rachel Feres, who lost her cousin Peter Livingston and his wife and two young daughters in the crash, said ahead of the hearing. “That nobody else has to wake up to hear that an entire branch of their family tree is gone, or their wife is gone or the child is gone. That’s what I hope coming out of this. I hope we have clarity and urgency.”
Whether that happens depends on how Congress, the Army and the Trump administration respond after the hearing. Victims’ families say they will keep the pressure on officials to act.
Young Alydia and Everly Livingston were among 28 members of the figure skating community who died in the crash. Many of them had been in Wichita for a national skating competition and development camp.
The NTSB has already spelled out many key factors that contributed to the crash and detailed what happened that night. That includes a poorly designed helicopter route past Reagan airport, the fact that the Black Hawk was flying 78 feet (23.7 meters) higher than it should have been, the warnings that the FAA ignored in the years beforehand, and the Army’s move to turn off a key system that would have broadcast the helicopter’s location more clearly.
Several other high-profile crashes and close calls followed the D.C. collision, alarming the flying public. But NTSB statistics show that the total number of crashes last year was the lowest since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, with 1,405 nationwide.
___
Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska, and White reported from Detroit. AP Airlines writer Rio Yamat contributed from Las Vegas.
Federal aviation officials say the tires of a LATAM Airlines Peru flight blew out moments after it landed at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport Tuesday night, prompting an emergency response and temporary delays on the tarmac.
According to the FAA, the aircraft had just arrived from Lima, Peru, when several tires failed after touchdown. Despite the blowout, the plane landed safely and came to a controlled stop.
The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department confirmed crews responded to the runway for what was initially reported as “flat tires on an aircraft.” Footage from the scene shows passengers exiting the plane directly onto the runway while mechanics worked under the aircraft to inspect and stabilize the damaged landing gear.
A LATAM Airlines Boeing 787 approaches for landing, Wednesday, July 5, 2023. (FILE)
Armando Franca / AP
No injuries were reported.
LATAM Airlines and Delta Air Lines share a codeshare partnership, but it’s unclear whether Delta passengers or crew were aboard.
Airport operations continued with minimal disruption, though portions of the runway were briefly cleared for safety.
The FAA says it is investigating the cause of the tire failure.
Thousands of people were stranded abroad because their flights home were scrapped after the U.S. temporarily shut down airspace around Venezuela following the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro.
Some travellers remain stuck because airlines rebooked them on flights that don’t leave for days, while others face thousands of dollars in extra travel-related expenses, such as lodging costs. Now, industry experts are advising them to ask airlines for refunds and, for those with travel insurance, to file a claim.
On Saturday, the day of the attack, roughly 1,130 flights within, into or out of the U.S., were cancelled, hundreds of which were scheduled to depart from Aruba, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and other Caribbean islands, according to flight tracking website FlightAware. Airlines have since resumed service in the region after the flight restrictions were lifted.
What travel insurance doesn’t cover
If you’re already on a trip, of course, it’s too late to purchase travel insurance.
“It’s like buying car insurance after you hit a tree,” Suzanne Morrow, CEO of InsureMyTrip, a travel insurance comparison site, told CBS News.
Even if you have coverage, meanwhile, there are limitations. Most travel policies include exclusions that might apply to trip interruptions of the sort that led to the now-lifted restrictions on Caribbean airspace. That can make it hard for purchasers of travel insurance to know if a policy will protect them.
“Coverage decisions are based on policy language and official determinations. My recommendation is to save all of your receipts for every expense incurred,” Morrow said.
Specifically, most policies expressly exclude coverage when a policyholder’s trip is disrupted due to an act of war, terrorism, or civil unrest, she noted. Such determinations are based on airlines’ stated reasons for cancelling flights.
As a result, payouts for delayed trips might not apply to the Venezuela flight restrictions, Jeff Rolander, vice president of claims and customer experience at Faye Travel Insurance, told CBS News.
“Insurers have been assessing the situation to determine if coverage will apply, and acts of war are a general exclusion under all travel insurance policies,” he said.
What travel insurance does cover
People who bought travel insurance are generally entitled to compensation when an airline cancels a flight because of a mechanical issue or other problem within the carrier’s control.
“Standard travel insurance policies are designed to protect against baggage loss or flight delays due to an airline issue,” said Chrissy Valdez, senior director of operations at Square Mouth, a travel insurance comparison site.
The policies can also protect travellers if they need to cancel trips for personal emergencies, such as illness or injury.
Many travel insurance providers also offer add-ons that provide coverage for trips that are interrupted for “any reason,” but such an upgrade has to be purchased in advance.
Valdez said some fliers could be eligible for compensation for a cancelled flight if the rebooked flight is cancelled due to an airline issue.
“Sometimes, because of airspace closures, airlines are trying to catch up and there may not be aircraft available. Mechanical issues could prevent them from adding additional aircraft to the fleet, and those kinds of things could still be covered,” she said.
The average cost of travel insurance is around $21 a day, according to Square Mouth. A policy’s pricing is based on trip costs and the breadth of coverage.
Always file a claim
For travellers whose flights are cancelled, Morrow said the first course of action beyond saving receipts should be to file a claim with their airline for any added expenses. Those costs could include meals, lodging and other costs incurred as a result of a flight cancellation.
“Go through the process, whether or not they cover anything. At least make the effort to get compensation, particularly if you don’t have insurance,” she advised.
If you do have travel coverage, your provider can also help with rebooking flights and finding alternate accommodations in the interim.
“Travel insurance does so much more than reimburse for expenses. It also comes with assistance benefits that can help when trips are interrupted,” Morrow said.
The U.S. military operation that captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and flew him and his wife out of the country early Saturday has also disrupted Caribbean travel at a busy travel time for the region.
No airline flights were crossing over Venezuela on Saturday, according to FlightRadar24.com. And major airlines canceled hundreds of flights across the eastern Caribbean region and warned passengers that the disruptions could continue for days after the Federal Aviation Administration imposed restrictions.
Flights to Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, Aruba and other destinations near Venezuela were canceled. The airlines are waiving change fees for passengers who have to reschedule their flights this weekend.
The FAA had earlier said it imposed a temporary airspace restriction on Puerto Rico’s international airport and surrounding regions.
An announcement by Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport in San Juan posted on the social media site X said restrictions were put in place because of the “security situation related to military activity” in Venezuela.
As a result, most commercial airlines to and from the airport that are operated by U.S. airlines have been suspended or may be canceled. Foreign airlines and military aircraft are not included in this restriction, the statement said. Air Canada said its flights were operating normally.
“We continue to monitor the situation closely and we will update as required if the situation changes,” the airline said.
JetBlue said it canceled about 215 flights “due to airspace closures across the Caribbean related to military activity.” It also noted that flights to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica were not affected by the government’s restrictions. Customers could rebook their travel or request a refund if the flights were canceled, the company said.
United said it was adjusting its schedule to account for airspace closures in the Venezuela region. It said customers could change their travel plans in the region for free as it continued to monitor the situation and worked with U.S. aviation authorities.
Southwest said it canceled all Aruba flights for Saturday and suspended Puerto Rico flights until late afternoon, but flights to the Dominican Republic were unaffected.
American said it was waiving change fees for flights to and from about 20 island destinations, including Anguilla, Antigua, Curacao, Saint Lucia and the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.
Delta said it has issued a travel waiver for customers traveling to or from 13 impacted airports through Tuesday.
Maduro and his wife are expected to land at New York Stewart International Airport later today, two sources familiar with the matter told CBS News. Maduro is expected to be turned over to federal authorities when he lands. The airport is located in the Hudson Valley, about 60 miles north of Manhattan.
Two helicopters crashed midair in New Jersey on Sunday, killing one person and critically injuring another, authorities say.Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to a report of an aviation crash at about 11:25 a.m. Video from the scene shows a helicopter spinning rapidly to the ground. Police and fire crews subsequently extinguished flames that engulfed one of the helicopters.The Federal Aviation Administration described the crash as a midair collision between an Enstrom F-28A helicopter and Enstrom 280C helicopter over Hammonton Municipal Airport. Only the pilots were on board each aircraft. One was killed, and the other was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.Sal Silipino, owner of a cafe near the crash site, said the pilots were regulars at the restaurant and would often have breakfast together. He said he and other customers watched the helicopters take off before one began spiraling downward, followed by the other.“It was shocking,” he said. “I’m still shaking after that happened.”Hammonton is a town of about 15,000 people located in Atlantic County in the southern part of New Jersey, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southeast of Philadelphia. The town has a history of agriculture and is located near the Pine Barrens, a forested wilderness area that covers more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares).The FAA and National Transportation Safety Board will be investigating the crash, Friel said.Investigators will likely first look to review any communications between the two pilots and whether they were able to see each other, said Alan Diehl, a former crash investigator for the FAA and NTSB.“Virtually all midair collisions are a failure to what they call ‘see and avoid,’” Diehl said. “Clearly they’ll be looking at the out-of-cockpit views of the two aircraft and seeing if one pilot was approaching from the blind side.”Although it was mostly cloudy at the time of the crash, winds were light and visibility was good, according to the weather forecasting company AccuWeather.
Two helicopters crashed midair in New Jersey on Sunday, killing one person and critically injuring another, authorities say.
Hammonton Police Chief Kevin Friel said rescuers responded to a report of an aviation crash at about 11:25 a.m. Video from the scene shows a helicopter spinning rapidly to the ground. Police and fire crews subsequently extinguished flames that engulfed one of the helicopters.
The Federal Aviation Administration described the crash as a midair collision between an Enstrom F-28A helicopter and Enstrom 280C helicopter over Hammonton Municipal Airport. Only the pilots were on board each aircraft. One was killed, and the other was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.
Sal Silipino, owner of a cafe near the crash site, said the pilots were regulars at the restaurant and would often have breakfast together. He said he and other customers watched the helicopters take off before one began spiraling downward, followed by the other.
“It was shocking,” he said. “I’m still shaking after that happened.”
Hammonton is a town of about 15,000 people located in Atlantic County in the southern part of New Jersey, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) southeast of Philadelphia. The town has a history of agriculture and is located near the Pine Barrens, a forested wilderness area that covers more than 1 million acres (405,000 hectares).
Investigators will likely first look to review any communications between the two pilots and whether they were able to see each other, said Alan Diehl, a former crash investigator for the FAA and NTSB.
“Virtually all midair collisions are a failure to what they call ‘see and avoid,’” Diehl said. “Clearly they’ll be looking at the out-of-cockpit views of the two aircraft and seeing if one pilot was approaching from the blind side.”
Although it was mostly cloudy at the time of the crash, winds were light and visibility was good, according to the weather forecasting company AccuWeather.
Joby Aviation(NYSE: JOBY) stock is up 73% over the last year and 326% over the last three years, and the electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) company is seemingly on an inexorable pathway to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)-type certification and commercial launch in 2026. As such, investors might be tempted to think that the stock is poised for a “buy the rumor, sell the news” moment after its eVTOL receives certification and launches commercially.
However, I think that would be a short-term approach. Here’s why.
Image source: Joby Aviation.
To understand why, you need to examine the company’s unique business model. Unlike its peers, such as Archer Aviation, Joby isn’t a company focused on being an eVTOL original equipment manufacturer (OEM). Instead, management plans to build what it calls a “vertically integrated transportation company that will deliver transportation services to customers, including government agencies such as the U.S. Air Force,” according to its SEC filings.
Consequently, its key milestones in the coming years are not just about achieving certification in 2026 and commercially launching; it also needs to establish itself as a transportation company. Consequently, there are many opportunities and pathways to growth for a company sometimes referred to as the “Uber of the Skies.”
The moniker is applicable, but it’s far from the complete story. Uber Technologies has invested $125 million in Joby and sold its air taxi division, Uber Elevate, to Joby in 2020. In addition, Joby will add the Blade air mobility business it acquired in the summer to Uber’s app.
However, Joby differs from its partner in that the company also manufactures the transportation equipment (eVTOLs) used in the service; that’s what management means by a vertically integrated transportation company.
The “vertical” approach doesn’t just apply to its transportation services strategy; Joby is also following a vertical manufacturing approach, whereby it’s building its eVTOLs in-house, with help from its partner and investor, Toyota, rather than sourcing from numerous external suppliers.
In theory, this approach will lead to a slower certification process as Joby isn’t leaning into aerospace companies with established expertise in the way that Archer Aviation, for example, is doing. However, the reality is that Joby is ahead in the certification race — an impressive achievement.
Image source: Getty Images.
All told, Joby is definitely not yesterday’s news. On the contrary, its partnerships with Uber and Delta Air Lines speak to its long-term future as a transportation services company, so anyone tempted to “sell on the news” of certification in 2026 may be acting prematurely.
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The Federal Aviation Administration said that as many as 52,000 flights will carry millions of people to their holiday destinations on Friday.
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DC-area travelers brace for holiday rush
If you’re flying out for the holidays, you should expect a lot of company. That’s because the Federal Aviation Administration said that as many as 52,000 flights will carry millions of people to their holiday destinations on Friday.
The FAA says it also expects at least 440,000 flights will take off between Friday and Sunday, Dec. 27.
“This is always an amazing time at any airport, but here at BWI Marshall we’re prepared for this,” BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport CEO Shannetta Griffin said.
“We know that during this time of the year, up to New Year’s, they’ll be lots of passengers. I think it’s 440,000 passengers we are anticipating.”
A group of carolers serenaded passengers in BWI’s Terminal A near the Southwest Airlines ticket counters, giving flyers some musical holiday spirits before going through the TSA checkpoint.
Bethesda’s Jack Carter was flying to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He said he prefers coming to BWI, rather than flying out of Reagan or Dulles.
“This is a great airport. I love flying out of BWI. It’s easy. You can get in and out. It’s intelligently designed. You don’t have to deal with people movers,” he said.
Airport officials say Monday will be the busiest day of the holiday travel period.
At Reagan National Airport, there have been a couple of delays due to the winds that have hit the D.C. region and not many crowds.
The FAA said that the No. 1 cause of delays and cancellations is weather. Furthermore, data from the National Airspace System shows that close to 63% of total delay minutes is due to the weather.
WTOP spoke to some people who said they’re happy to get to their families for the holidays.
Kelly, who has been living in D.C. recently, is traveling to Des Moines, Iowa, to see her parents and said checking into her flight has been “pretty smooth.”
“It doesn’t seem too insane,” Kelly said. “I’m wondering if more people are traveling tomorrow morning or this evening.”
Tara, a resident of Maryland, is flying with her family to Alabama for a Christmas cruise to the Bahamas.
“Been kind of frustrating … the lines are long and traveling with kids but people not so helpful because is just a lot going on,” Tara said.
The FAA said that as many as 52,000 flights will carry millions of people to their holiday destinations on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025.
(WTOP/Alan Etter)
WTOP/Alan Etter
A Christmas tree shown inside Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday, Dec. 19, 2025.
(WTOP/Alan Etter)
WTOP/Alan Etter
WTOP’s Dan Ronan and Alan Etter contributed to this report.
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The Federal Aviation Administration says a plane experienced an engine failure while taking off from Dulles International Airport before safely returning to the airport.
DULLES, Va. (AP) — A United Airlines flight experienced an engine failure during takeoff from Dulles International Airport on Saturday before safely returning to the airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The FAA said United flight 803 was traveling to Tokyo when the engine failed Saturday afternoon. The plane, a Boeing 777-200, safely returned to airport around 1:20 p.m. The FAA will investigate.
The plane returned to the airport after losing power in one engine, according to the airline. There were no reported injuries among the 275 passengers and 15 crew members, and a different aircraft was scheduled to continue the flight later Saturday.
Some brush around the runway was ignited as the plane departed, said Emily McGee, a spokesperson for the airport. The fire has been extinguished.
In a windowless room at Denver police headquarters on a recent Thursday afternoon, Officer Chris Velarde activated a police drone to investigate a potential car break-in.
Officer Chris Velarde flies a drone and monitors live footage from its camera from Denver Police Department headquarters on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Several floors above, the drone launched from the roof and flew itself — essentially on autopilot — to the site of the call, reported as a man breaking into a car with a crowbar near the Santa Fe Arts District.
The drone whizzed along, 200 feet up, in a straight line across blocks, buildings and streets during the roughly mile-long flight from police headquarters at 1331 Cherokee St. Velarde didn’t pick up the Xbox video-game controller that manually pilots the drone until it reached the area of the call. Then he took control and trolled the block for the supposed break-in, watching live video footage transmitted from the drone on his computer monitor as he flew.
After a few moments, Velarde spotted two people jiggering the passenger-side window of a vehicle. He zoomed in on the pair, and on the car’s license plate. He ran the plate to see whether the vehicle was stolen; it was not. The people on the street didn’t look up. They didn’t seem to know a police drone was hovering above them, that they were being recorded and watched a mile away by officers and a reporter.
Two more people joined the pair at the vehicle’s window and Velarde made the call — this didn’t look like a vehicle break-in. More likely, someone had just locked their keys in their car. He cleared the call with 911 dispatchers and told them there was no need to send an officer to the scene. Then he sent the drone back to headquarters; it flew itself to the rooftop dock, landing autonomously on a platform stamped with bright blue-and-yellow QR codes.
The Denver Police Department began testing drones as first responders — that is, sending them out on 911 calls — in mid-October after signing up for two free pilot programs from rival drone companies Skydio and Flock Safety. The effort has raised concerns among privacy advocates, Denver politicians and the city’s police oversight group, particularly regarding the department’s contract with Flock, the company behind the city’s controversial network of automated license-plate readers.
Police see the drones as a way to speed up call-response times and provide more information to officers as they arrive on scene, improving, they say, both public safety and officer safety. If a drone arrives at a scene before officers, and the drone pilot can tell police on the ground that the man with the knife actually put down the weapon before the officers arrived, that helps everyone, police said.
“The more knowledge, information and intelligence that we can provide our officers on the ground, the better methods that they can use to respond to certain situations, which may cause them to not escalate unnecessarily,” said Cmdr. Clifford Barnes, who heads the department’s Cyber Bureau.
Critics say the eyes in the sky raise serious privacy concerns both with how the drones and the data they collect are used now, and with how they might be used in the future as the technology rapidly changes. They worry that the drones could create a citywide surveillance network with few legal guardrails, that the footage they collect will be used to train private companies’ AI algorithms or that police will misuse emerging AI capabilities, like facial recognition.
“When it comes to the decision of, are we going to use this thing that could potentially increase public safety, that will erode privacy rights — no one should get to decide the public is willing to give away our constitutional rights, except the people,” said Anaya Robinson, public policy director at the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado. “And when law enforcement makes that decision for us, it becomes extremely problematic.”
Almost 300 drone flights in 55 days
So far, only Skydio drones have flown as first responders over Denver.
Denver police signed a zero-dollar contract with Flock — without public announcement — in August for a year-long pilot of drones as first responders, but the company has yet to set up its autonomous aircraft. Skydio, on the other hand, moved quickly to get drones in the air after Denver police in October signed a contract to test up to four of the company’s drones during a free six-month pilot.
Skydio’s drones can reach about a 2-mile radius around the Denver police headquarters. The company advertises a top speed of 45 mph with 40 minutes of flight time; Denver pilots have found the drones average around 28 mph and around 25 minutes of battery life per flight.
From the first flight on Oct. 15 through Tuesday, two Skydio drones flew 297 times, according to data provided by Denver police in response to an open records request. Most of those flights — 199 — were to answer calls for service; another 82 were training flights, according to the data.
Skydio drones also surveilled events — a function police call “event overwatch” — seven times, the police data shows. Overwatch might include flying over a protest to track where the demonstrators are headed and alert officers on the ground for traffic control, Barnes said. (The police data showed that all seven overwatch flights occurred on Oct. 18, the day of Denver’s “No Kings” rally.)
The drones flew to 29 calls about a person with a weapon, 21 disturbances, 20 assaults in progress, a dozen suspicious occurrences and 11 hold-up alarms, according to data from Denver’s 911 dispatch records. The drones also flew to 39 other types of calls, including reports of prowlers, fights, burglaries, domestic violence and suicidal people.
The most common outcome for a call was that the officers were unable to locate an incident or the suspect was gone by the time the drone or police officers arrived, the records show. Across about 200 calls for service that included drone responses, police made 22 arrests and issued one citation, the dispatch data shows.
When responding to calls for service, the drones reached the scene before patrol officers 88% of the time, the police data shows. A drone was the sole police response in 80 of 199 calls for service, or about 40% of the time.
Barnes said answering calls with solely a drone improves police efficiency.
“If an officer on the ground doesn’t need to respond, and the drone pilot is comfortable with cancelling the other officers coming, we can assign those officers to more important, more pressing matters, so call-response times come down,” he said.
That approach raises questions about what the drones (which are equipped with three different cameras and a thermal imager) can and can’t see, and how officers are making decisions about call responses without actually speaking to anyone at the scene, the ACLU’s Robinson said.
“Humans have bias,” he said. Drone pilots might be more inclined to send officers to a potential car break-in in a low-income neighborhood and more likely not to in a higher-income neighborhood, he said. Or they might miss something from above that they could have seen at street level.
Officer Chris Velarde flies a drone and monitors live footage from its camera from Denver Police Department headquarters on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
But minimizing in-person police interactions with residents, particularly in over-policed neighborhoods, can also be a positive, said Julia Richman, chair of Denver’s Citizen Oversight Board, which provides civilian oversight of the police department.
“Where my head goes is the other outcome, where they roll up on those people who are trying to get keys out of the car and then they shoot them,” she said. “Actually, (the drone-only response) seems like a really good outcome.”
The oversight group has talked with Denver police over the last two years about developing its drone program, she said. The department created a seven-page policy to guide their use; the policy aims to ensure “civil rights and reasonable expectations of privacy are a key component of any decision made to deploy” a drone.
But Richman said she was surprised by aspects of the police department’s pilot programs despite the ongoing conversations with department leadership.
“What was never discussed, not once, was the idea of a third party running those drones or those drones being autonomous,” she said, referring to the drone companies. “What has changed with this latest pilot is the key features and key aspects that would create public concern had never been discussed with us.”
Both Flock and Skydio advertise autonomous features powered by artificial intelligence. Skydio uses AI for its autonomous flight paths, obstacle avoidance and tracking people and cars.
Flock, which also offers autonomous flight, advertises its drones as integrating with its automated license-plate readers. The license-plate readers — there are more than 100 around Denver — automatically photograph every car that passes by them. If a license plate is stolen or involved in a crime, the license-plate readers alert police within seconds.
Police Chief Ron Thomas and Mayor Mike Johnston defended the surveillance network as an invaluable crime-solving tool this year against mounting public discontent around how much data the machines collected and how that data was used — particularly around sharing information with the federal government for the purposes of immigration enforcement.
That privacy debate around Flock’s license plate readers unfolded in communities across Colorado and nationwide this year. In Loveland, the police department for a time allowed U.S. Border Patrol agents to access its Flock cameras before blocking that access. In Longmont, councilmembers voted Wednesday to look for alternatives to replace the 20 Flock license plate readers in that city.
When Denver City Council members, some driven by privacy concerns, voted against continuing Flock’s license-plate readers in May, Johnston extended the surveillance anyway through a free five-month contract extension with Flock in October that did not require approval from the council. Against that backdrop, Denver police quietly signed on for Flock’s drone pilot in August.
Barnes said the police department will not use any license-plate reader capabilities available on Flock drones. Such a feature would constitute “random surveillance,” which is prohibited under the department’s drone policy. The drones never fly without an officer’s direct involvement, he added.
The blue 2-mile-radius line seen on a computer screen shows the range of Denver police Skydio drones flown from Denver Police headquarters. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
The policy also prohibits drones from filming anywhere a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy unless police have a warrant, and says officers should take “reasonable precautions … to avoid inadvertently recording or transmitting images of areas where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy.”
Denver police do receive search warrants to fly drones for particular operations outside of the drones-as-first-responder program. In October, a Denver police detective sought and received a warrant to fly a drone over a shooting suspect’s home in Cherry Hills Village to check whether a truck involved in the shooting was parked at the wooded property.
The warrant noted that when driving home from anywhere outside Cherry Hills Village, the suspect could not reach his house without passing by Flock license-plate readers, and that photos from those license-plate readers suggested the truck was at the property.
Denver Councilwoman Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez and Councilman Kevin Flynn both told The Post they were not aware of the police department’s Skydio drone pilot before hearing about it from the newspaper, even though they are both on the city’s Surveillance Technology Task Force. The new group began meeting in August largely to consider Flock license-plate readers, as well as other types of surveillance technology, Gonzales-Gutierrez said.
“We haven’t talked about it in the task force, and the charge of our work in the task force is to come up with those guardrails that need to be put in place for these types of technology being utilized by law enforcement,” she said. “I feel like they just keep moving on without us being able to complete our work.”
Police don’t need permission from the City Council to carry out the pilot programs, Gonzales-Gutierrez said, but she was disappointed by the lack of communication and collaboration from the department.
Flynn sees the potential of police drones, particularly in speeding up officer response times, which can sometimes be dismal in the far-flung areas of his southwestern district.
“If a drone can get there to a 911 call and it can help an officer at headquarters assess the scene before a staffed car could get there, I would love that,” he said.
But he wants to be sure they are used in a way that respects residents’ rights. He would not support using the drones for general patrolling or surveillance, he said.
“This pilot is an excellent opportunity to test all of those boundaries and see if there are ways to operate a system that can be very useful for public safety without crossing boundaries,” he said.”…And maybe we don’t keep using them. That is the point of a pilot.”
‘These are flying cops’
The Skydio drones film from the moment they are launched until they drop in to land.
When the drone is on its way to a call — flying at the 200-foot altitude limit set by the Federal Aviation Administration — its cameras remain pointed at the horizon. In Denver’s denser neighborhoods, the Skydio drones at that height flew among buildings, sometimes at eye-level with balconies, offices and apartment windows, according to video of four flights obtained by The Post through an open records request.
“What if someone is in their apartment unit in one of these giant buildings and they’re changing, and they have their window open because they’re way up high and they don’t think anyone is watching them?” Gonzales-Gutierrez said. “That is crazy.”
The drones buzzed over rooftop decks, balconies and elevated apartment complex pools, the videos show. On one trip, a drone flew past the Colorado State Capitol Building, recording three people on a balcony on the tower under the building’s golden dome. Another time, the drone pilot zoomed in on a license plate so tightly that the car’s small, decorative “LOVE” decal was clearly visible.
Flynn noted that a 200-foot altitude would put the drones well above most of the homes in his less-dense district, and that people on their porches or balconies aren’t somewhere private.
“If someone is out on a balcony, sitting there reading a book… generally speaking, if you are out in public there’s no expectation of privacy,” he said.
The Skydio drones recorded about 54 hours of footage in the first eight weeks of their operation, according to data provided by the police department. Police leadership opted to have the drones’ cameras on and recording whenever the drone is in flight to boost transparency about how the drones are being used, Barnes said.
“It makes sense to keep the camera rolling,” Barnes said. “Then, if there’s an allegation, we just make sure that footage is recorded and treated like digital evidence, uploaded to the evidence management platform so it could be reviewed as necessary. We’re just trying to make sure we establish that balance, being as transparent as possible.”
Drone footage unrelated to criminal investigations is automatically deleted after 60 days, he said. While it’s retained, it’s stored in an evidence system that keeps a record of anyone who looks at it. The drone unit’s sergeant, Brent Kohls, also audits the flight reports monthly. (Footage used in criminal investigations will be on the same retention schedule as body-worn camera footage, police said.)
Kohls noted it would be unusual for the drone footage to be viewed only by the pilot. The feed is often displayed on the wall of the police department’s Real-Time Crime Center as it comes in.
ACLU attorney Nathan Freed Wessler, deputy director of the organization’s speech, privacy and technology project, would rather see police keep the recording off while flying a drone to a call, even if the camera is still livestreaming to police headquarters. In that scenario, a drone pilot might still see a woman tanning topless on her rooftop pool deck, he said, but the government wouldn’t then keep a recording of that privacy violation, amplifying it further.
“The thing we are really worried about is police start deploying drones as first responders for the majority of their calls for service and suddenly you have this crisscrossing network of surveillance all over the city,” Freed Wessler said. “You have the potential for a pervasive record of what everyone is doing all the time.”
Kohls said an officer flying a drone who spotted a different crime occurring while en route to another call would stop to report and respond to that secondary crime, just like an officer would on the ground.
“Absolutely, if an officer sees a crime happening, they’re going to get on the radio, alert dispatch to what they’re observing,” Kohls said. “Hopefully, if they have a few minutes of battery time left still, they can extend their time and circle or overwatch on that scene to provide hopefully life-saving radio traffic, whatever information they need to relay to dispatch to get other officers heading, or the fire department heading that way.”
State and federal laws have not yet caught up to how police are using drones, Freed Wessler said. The Fourth Amendment has what’s known as the plain-view exception, which allows police officers who are lawfully in a place to take action if they see evidence of a crime happening in plain sight.
“The problem here is we are not talking about police doing a thing we would normally expect them to do,” Freed Wessler said. “We are talking about police taking advantage of a new technology that gives them a totally new power to fly at virtually no expense over any part of the city at any time of day and see a whole bunch of stuff happening.”
A Denver police drone lands on its docking station on the roof of Denver Police headquarters in Denver, on Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Police have broad leeway to watch suspects without first getting a search warrant — like by peering through a fence or climbing the steps of a nearby building to look into a yard. But that’s different from using a subtle video camera to record a person 24/7 for months, the justices concluded.
So far, that’s the closest ruling in Colorado on the issue of drone surveillance, Freed Wessler said. Robinson, the policy director at the ACLU of Colorado, said lawmakers should act to regulate police drone use — either at the state or local level.
“These are flying cops,” said Beryl Lipton, senior investigative researcher at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit focused on digital privacy. “That is another one of those slippery slopes.”
Aside from the legality of surveillance, another question is how the drone footage and flight data is used by the drone companies, Lipton said.
“We live in a time where all these AI-fueled companies have a real drive to integrate AI into everything, and they’re really hungry for new data,” she said. “And we have law enforcement helping to feed these companies in a way they don’t really understand.”
Under its current agreement with Denver police, Skydio doesn’t use drone footage to train its algorithm or improve its product. Flock spells out in its contract that the company can “collect, analyze and anonymize” drone footage, then use that anonymized footage to train its “machine learning algorithms,” and enhance its services.
Lipton added that technology is moving fast — Axon, a company that powers many police departments’ body-worn cameras — this month started testing facial recognition on its cameras to automatically alert a police officer if a person they’re encountering has a warrant out for their arrest.
Prisons are experimenting with “movement analysis” to automatically flag a person’s movements as potentially aggressive before the person perpetrates violence, she said.
“We are technologically at a place where it would not be hard for a drone to fly over an area and basically serve as a license-plate reader for humans,” Lipton said. “… Some of this analysis is just not being done because it is not publicly palatable yet. But it is not like it is technologically difficult for some of these companies.”
A fleet of planes that UPS grounded after a deadly crash isn’t expected to be back in service during the peak holiday season due to inspections and possible repairs, the company said Wednesday in an internal memo.
The airline expects it will be several months before its McDonnell Douglas MD-11 fleet returns to service as it works to meet Federal Aviation Administration guidelines, said the memo from UPS Airlines president Bill Moore to employees. The process was originally estimated to take weeks but is now expected to take several months.
A fiery MD-11 plane crash on Nov. 4 in Louisville, Kentucky, killed 14 people and injured at least 23 when the left engine detached during takeoff. Cargo carriers grounded their McDonnell Douglas MD-11 fleets shortly after, ahead of a directive from the FAA.
“Regarding the MD-11 fleet, Boeing’s ongoing evaluation shows that inspections and potential repairs will be more extensive than initially expected,” Moore wrote in the memo.
A UPS spokesperson said in a statement that the company will rely on contingency plans to deliver for customers throughout the peak season, and it “will take the time needed to ensure that every aircraft is safe.”
The 109 remaining MD-11 airliners, averaging more than 30 years old, are exclusively used to haul cargo for package delivery companies. MD-11s make up about 9% of the UPS airline fleet and 4% of the FedEx fleet.
Boeing, which took over as the manufacturer of MD-11s since merging with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, said in a statement that it is “working diligently to provide instructions and technical support to operators” so that they can meet the FAA’s requirements.
The FAA said Boeing will develop the procedures for inspections and any corrective actions, pending approval from the FAA.
Five people on board an American Airlines flight bound for Phoenix were hospitalized after the crew reported fumes inside the plane, forcing it to land in Houston, according to the airline and the Federal Aviation Administration.
American Airlines Flight 2118 departed Orlando International Airport for Phoenix Sky Harbor on Sunday, but the plane was diverted to George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston once crew members “reported fumes in the flight deck and cabin,” the FAA said in a statement. The flight landed safely in Houston at around 7:10 p.m. local time, according to the FAA. The agency said it will investigate.
“I’m gonna have some transports here out of the airport on this,” a crew member said as the flight was diverted, according to CBS affiliate KHOU-TV.
Four flight attendants and one passenger were taken to a hospital “out of an abundance of caution” following the Houston landing, said American Airlines in another statement. First responders had met the aircraft at the gate when it arrived, according to the airline.
“American Airlines flight 2118 landed safely and taxied to the gate under its own power at Houston (IAH) following reports of an odor on board,” the statement said. “We thank our team members for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for their experience.”
The flight departed from Houston shortly after landing there, using a replacement aircraft, according to American Airlines.
Only 776 air traffic controllers and technicians who had perfect attendance during the government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonuses while nearly 20,000 other workers will be left out, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday.
A number of controllers started calling out of work as the shutdown dragged on longer than a month and they dealt with the financial pressure of working without a paycheck. Some of them got side jobs, but others simply couldn’t afford the child care or gas they needed to work. Their absences forced delays at airports across the country and led the government to order airlines to cut some of their flights at 40 busy airports.
President Donald Trump suggested the bonuses for those who have stayed on the job in a social media post, but he also suggested that controllers who missed work should have their pay docked. FAA officials haven’t publicly announced plans to penalize controllers.
Thousands of FAA technicians also had to work during the shutdown to maintain the equipment that air traffic controllers rely on. At least 6,600 technicians were expected to work throughout the shutdown but more than 3,000 others were subject to be recalled to work.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the bonuses acknowledged the dedication of these few workers who never missed a shift during the 43-day shutdown. In a post on X he described it as “Santa’s coming to town a little early.”
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“These patriotic men and women never missed a beat and kept the flying public safe throughout the shutdown,” Duffy said in his formal announcement.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union said only 311 of its more than 10,000 members will receive the bonuses. The union said these workers with perfect attendance deserve recognition but so do the others.
“We are concerned that thousands of air traffic controllers who consistently reported for duty during the shutdown, ensuring the safe transport of passengers and cargo across the nation, while working without pay and uncertain of when they would receive compensation, were excluded from this recognition. More than 311 of these dedicated professionals were instrumental in keeping America moving,” the union said in a statement.
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union said the thousands of technicians it represents worked hard to keep the aging computer and radar systems controllers use operating during the shutdown, and they should all be recognized — not just the 423 getting bonuses.
“It took many hands to ensure that not one delay during the historic 43-day shutdown was attributed to equipment or system failures,” the union said in a statement.
Democratic Rep. Rick Larsen questioned why all the controllers and others who worked to keep flights moving during during the shutdown won’t get bonuses.
“For the Trump administration to not give a bonus to every single one of these hardworking women and men is wrong; they all deserve a bonus and back pay,” said Larsen, who is the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee.
The controllers union said they hope to work with Duffy to find a way to recognize all the other air traffic controllers who worked during the shutdown.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that any TSA officers who went “above and beyond” while working without pay would get $10,000 bonuses, but she never specified how many will qualify beyond the handful of checks she handed out to officers at a news conference.
The FAA was already critically short on air traffic controllers before the shutdown. Duffy had been working to boost controller hiring and streamline the years of training required in the hope of eliminating the shortage over the next several years.
Duffy has said that some students and controllers quit and more experienced controllers retired during the shutdown. Many controllers already work 10-hour shifts six days a week because the FAA is so short on staffing.
As more controllers missed work, the FAA ordered airlines to cut flights to relieve pressure on the system. Duffy said repeatedly that FAA safety experts became worried as the absences grew because of reports from pilots concerned about controllers’ responses and a number of runway incursions.
Since the shutdown ended, controller staffing has improved significantly and airlines were allowed to resume normal operations this week.
(CNN) — Even if you’re flying commercial for the holidays, private jets might be making your trip more expensive.
That’s because, some critics say, business jets and others aren’t paying their fair share for the nation’s air traffic control system.
The overwhelming majority of the Aviation Trust Fund — the main source of funding for the Federal Aviation Administration — comes from a variety of fees levied on commercial passengers; in contrast, business jets pay only a modest fuel tax.
“If you’re standing in line for a commercial flight at Thanksgiving, you’re subsidizing private jet travelers,” said Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, a think tank that specializes in inequality and environmental issues. “We, the commercial plane travelers, are picking up the slack for the most luxurious type of travel.”
Those taxes and fees airline customers pay include a 7.5% tax on the cost of every ticket, a $5.20 tax per trip segment, additional taxes on international flights, or flights to or from Alaska and Hawaii – even a 7.5% tax on the value of frequent flyer miles being awarded.
There are roughly 20,000 business jets based in the United States, according to the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), the industry trade group. That’s more than twice as many commercial passenger aircraft, but because the business jets fly less, they only account for about 9% of daily flights.
The NBAA argues that the fuel tax of 21.8 cents a gallon, paid by private jet operators to the FAA, covers their fair share of the Aviation Trust Fund. Since business jets use more fuel than smaller planes, they pay a bigger share of the aviation fuel tax than small prop planes owned and flown by individuals, although less than the fuel taxes paid by airlines.
“It’s a very efficient tax, and it’s a progressive tax,” said NBAA CEO Ed Bolen.
But critics say that fuel tax only covers a fraction of business jets’ costs to the US air system.
The fuel tax only covers about 10% of business jets’ costs to the FAA’s air traffic control activities, said Robert Poole, director of transportation policy at the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank. “They’re getting a very generous free ride,” he said.
Non-commercial jets paid $166 million in fuel tax last year, compared to $11.9 billion commercial airline passengers paid in fees and taxes, FAA data shows.
Business jets have other advantages, too. Starting November 7 during the government shutdown, the FAA ordered commercial airlines to reduce the number of flights by up to 10% at the nation’s 40 largest airports, citing the shortage of air traffic controllers. That left tens of thousands of air passengers delayed or even stranded atlarge and smallairports across the country.
But it wasn’t until more than a week later, on November 13, that the FAA limited most business jets flight into and out of the nation’s 12 largest airports.
“You can sort of see the priorities,” said Collins. “They should have grounded private planes before you grounded commercial travelers.”
Airline passengers wait on November 7, as hundreds of domestic flights were canceled due to a shortage of controllers during the government shutdown. In contrast, private jet flights at major airports did not face restrictions until November 13. Credit: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP / Getty Images via CNN Newsource
The FAA did not comment on CNN’s questions for this story.
The NBAA’s Bolen said private jets, which are largely used by smaller firms, help businesses contribute to the economy.
Bolen said business jets don’t add much cost to the system because they don’t increase the number of air traffic controllers needed. His group’s figures show only 3% of the flights at the nation’s busiest airports are by business jets.
“It’s clear traffic systems are built to accommodate the requirements of the commercial airlines, and others fit into that system,” he said, calling air traffic control system costs for business jets “incremental.”
When business jet flights were sharply reduced at Reagan National Airport outside of Washington, DC, after the September 11 attack, the airport’s control tower costs “did not go down one dime,” he said.
But 254 smaller regional airports frequently used by business jets and private planes have few, if any, commercial flights
Those airports have their own private controllers, known as “contract towers,” paid for under contract with the FAA. That system costs about $230 million a year, said Michael McCormick, professor of air traffic management at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. And the business jet fuel tax contribution to that system is a small fraction of that cost.
“They’re very happy with the status quo,” said McCormick, adding that the business jet owners frequently lobby Congress against changing that.
The Reason Foundation’s Poole says companies would likely pay up to keep their CEOs flying private even if fees were raised significantly. Most of the rest of the world taxes flights based on the gross weight of the plane times the miles flown, Poole said.
“Whenever one of those planes flies outside of US air space, they pay those fees,” he said.
Only 776 air traffic controllers and technicians who had perfect attendance during the government shutdown will receive $10,000 bonuses while nearly 20,000 other workers will be left out, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Thursday.
A number of controllers started calling out of work as the shutdown dragged on longer than a month and they dealt with the financial pressure of working without a paycheck. Some of them got side jobs, but others simply couldn’t afford the child care or gas they needed to work. Their absences forced delays at airports across the country and led the government to order airlines to cut some of their flights at 40 busy airports.
President Trump suggested the bonuses for those who have stayed on the job in a social media post, but he also suggested that controllers who missed work should have their pay docked. FAA officials haven’t publicly announced plans to penalize controllers.
Thousands of FAA technicians also had to work during the shutdown to maintain the equipment that air traffic controllers rely on. At least 6,600 technicians were expected to work throughout the shutdown but more than 3,000 others were subject to be recalled to work.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the bonuses acknowledged the dedication of these few workers who never missed a shift during the 43-day shutdown. In a post on X he described it as “Santa’s coming to town a little early.”
“These patriotic men and women never missed a beat and kept the flying public safe throughout the shutdown,” Duffy said in his formal announcement.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association union said only 311 of its more than 10,000 members will receive the bonuses. The union said these workers with perfect attendance deserve recognition but so do the others.
“We are concerned that thousands of air traffic controllers who consistently reported for duty during the shutdown, ensuring the safe transport of passengers and cargo across the nation, while working without pay and uncertain of when they would receive compensation, were excluded from this recognition. More than 311 of these dedicated professionals were instrumental in keeping America moving,” the union said in a statement.
The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union said the thousands of technicians it represents worked hard to keep the aging computer and radar systems controllers use operating during the shutdown and they should all be recognized – not just the 423 getting bonuses.
“It took many hands to ensure that not one delay during the historic 43-day shutdown was attributed to equipment or system failures,” the union said in a statement.
Democratic Rep. Rick Larsen of Washington State questioned why all the controllers and others who worked to keep flights moving during during the shutdown won’t get bonuses.
“For the Trump administration to not give a bonus to every single one of these hardworking women and men is wrong; they all deserve a bonus and back pay,” said Larsen, the ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee.
The controllers union said they hope to work with Duffy to find a way to recognize all the other air traffic controllers who worked during the shutdown.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that any TSA officers who went “above and beyond” while working without pay would get $10,000 bonuses but she never specified how many will qualify beyond the handful of checks she handed out to officers at a news conference.
The FAA was already critically short on air traffic controllers before the shutdown. Duffy had been working to boost controller hiring and streamline the years of training required in the hope of eliminating the shortage over the next several years.
Duffy has said that some students and controllers quit and more experienced controllers retired during the shutdown. Many controllers already work 10-hour shifts six days a week because the FAA is so short on staffing.
As more controllers missed work, the FAA ordered airlines to cut flights to relieve pressure on the system. Duffy said repeatedly that FAA safety experts became worried as the absences grew because of reports from pilots concerned about controllers’ responses and a number of runway incursions. FAA lifts emergency order that slashed flights at 40 major U.S. airports Since the shutdown ended, controller staffing has improved significantly and airlines were allowed to resume normal operations this week.
Airlines can resume their regular flight schedules beginning Monday at 6 a.m. EST, the agency said.
The announcement was made in a joint statement by Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford.
Citing safety concerns as staffing shortages grew at air traffic control facilities during the shutdown, the FAA issued an unprecedented order to limit traffic in the skies. It had been in place since Nov. 7, affecting thousands of flights across the country.
Impacted airports included large hubs in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Atlanta.
The flight cuts started at 4% and later grew to 6% before the FAA on Friday rolled the restrictions back to 3%, citing continued improvements in air traffic controller staffing since the record 43-day shutdown ended on Nov. 12.
The number of flights canceled this weekend was at its lowest point since the order took effect and was well below the 3% cuts FAA was requiring for Saturday and Sunday. Data from aviation analytics firm Cirium showed that less than 1% of all flights were canceled this weekend. The flight tracking website FlightAware said 149 flights were cut Sunday and 315 were canceled on Saturday.
The FAA statement said an agency safety team recommended the order be rescinded after “detailed reviews of safety trends and the steady decline of staffing-trigger events in air traffic control facilities.”
The statement said the FAA “is aware of reports of non-compliance by carriers over the course of the emergency order. The agency is reviewing and assessing enforcement options.” It did not elaborate.
Cancellations hit their highest point Nov. 9, when airlines cut more than 2,900 flights because of the FAA order, ongoing controller shortages and severe weather in parts of the country. Conditions began to improve throughout last week as more controllers returned to work amid news that Congress was close to a deal to end the shutdown. That progress also prompted the FAA to pause plans for further rate increases.
The agency had initially aimed for a 10% reduction in flights. Duffy had said worrisome safety data showed the move was necessary to ease pressure on the aviation system and help manage worsening staffing shortages at air traffic control facilities as the shutdown entered its second month and flight disruptions began to pile up.
Air traffic controllers were among the federal employees who had to continue working without pay throughout the shutdown. They missed two paychecks during the impasse.
Duffy hasn’t shared the specific safety data that prompted the cuts, but he cited reports during the shutdown of planes getting too close in the air, more runway incursions and pilot concerns about controllers’ responses.
Airline leaders have expressed optimism that operations would rebound in time for the Thanksgiving travel period after the FAA lifted its order.
Flight reductions at 40 major U.S. airports will remain at 6% instead of rising to 10% by the end of the week because more air traffic controllers are coming to work, officials said Wednesday.
The flight cuts were implemented last week as more air traffic controllers were calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs — leaving more control towers and facilities short-staffed. Air traffic controllers missed two paychecks during the impasse.
The Department of Transportation said the flight reduction decision was made on recommendations from the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety team, after a “rapid decline” in controller callouts.
The 6% limit will stay in place while officials assess whether the air traffic system can safely return to normal operations, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, although he did not provide a timeline Wednesday.
“If the FAA safety team determines the trend lines are moving in the right direction, we’ll put forward a path to resume normal operations,” Duffy said in a statement.
Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Wednesday that safety remains their top priority and that all decisions will be guided by data.
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Delta struck an optimistic note about how much longer flight reductions would continue, saying in a statement the airline looked forward to bringing its “operation back to full capacity over the next few days.”
Since the restrictions took effect last Friday, more than 10,100 flights have been canceled, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. The FAA originally planned to ramp up flight cuts from 4% to 10% at the 40 airports.
The FAA said that worrisome safety data showed flight reductions were needed to ease pressure on the aviation system and help manage worsening staffing shortages at its air traffic control facilities as flight disruptions began to pile up.
Duffy has declined to share the specific safety data that prompted the flight cuts. But at a news conference Tuesday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, he cited reports of planes getting too close in the air, more runway incursions and pilot concerns about controllers’ responses.
The FAA’s list of 40 airports spans more than two dozen states and includes large hubs such as New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. The order requires all commercial airlines to make cuts at those airports.
Airlines for America, the trade group of U.S. airlines, posted on social media that it was grateful for the funding bill. It said reopening the government would allow U.S. airlines to restore operations ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday which is in about two weeks.
How long it will take for the aviation system to stabilize is unclear. The flight restrictions upended airline operations in just a matter of days. Many planes were rerouted and aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Airlines for America said earlier Wednesday that there would be residual effects for days.
Eric Chaffee, a Case Western Reserve professor who studies risk management, says airlines face complex hurdles, including rebuilding flight schedules that were planned months in advance.
Airline and hotel trade groups had earlier Wednesday urged the House to act quickly to end the shutdown, warning of potential holiday travel chaos.
Flight cuts disrupted other flights and crews, leading to more cancelations than the FAA required at first. The impact was worsened by unexpected controller shortages over the weekend and severe weather.
The CEO of the U.S. Travel Association said essential federal workers like air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration workers must be paid if “Congress ever goes down this foolish path again” and there is a shutdown.
“America cannot afford another self-inflicted crisis that threatens the systems millions rely on every day,” Geoff Freeman said in a statement.
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Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.
Air travelers should expect worsening cancellations and delays this week even if the government shutdown ends, as the Federal Aviation Administration rolls out deeper cuts to flights at 40 major U.S. airports, officials said Monday.
The fourth day of the flight restrictions saw airlines scrap over 2,300 flights Monday and more than 1,000 flights set for takeoff Tuesday. Unpaid for more than a month, some air traffic controllers have begun calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs.
President Donald Trump took to social media on Monday to pressure controllers to “get back to work, NOW!!!” He called for a $10,000 bonus for those who’ve stayed on the job and suggested docking pay for those who haven’t.
Rep. Rick Larsen, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Sen. Tammy Duckworth, ranking member of the Senate’s Aviation Subcommittee, condemned the president’s remarks, saying controllers deserve appreciation and support — not attacks.
The head of the controllers union says its members are being used as a “political pawn” in the shutdown fight.
Meanwhile, the Senate passed legislation Monday to reopen the government, though the bill also needs to clear the House and final passage could be days away. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy made clear last week that flight cuts will remain in place until the FAA sees staffing levels stabilize at its air traffic control facilities.
And because the flight disruptions are widespread and ongoing, many planes aren’t where they’re supposed to be, which could also slow the airlines’ return to normal operations even after the FAA lifts the order, said Mike Taylor, who leads research on airports and airlines at J.D. Power.
“If you think about it, there’s all these aircraft that didn’t fly where they were supposed to on a normal route,” Taylor said, noting airlines will need to track down all their planes, figure out where each needs to be, and find pilots and cabin crew for those flights.
Since Friday, airlines have canceled about 8,000 flights under orders to drop 4% of flights at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports. That will rise to 6% on Tuesday and 10% by week’s end, the FAA says.
One in 10 flights nationwide were scratched Sunday — the fourth worst day for cancellations in almost two years, according aviation analytics firm Cirium.
Controller shortages also led to five-hour delays Monday evening at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, where wintry weather added to the disruptions earlier in the day, and the FAA warned that staffing at over a dozen towers and control centers could cause delays in cities including Philadelphia, Nashville and Atlanta.
That leaves travelers growing angry.
“All of this has real negative consequences for millions of Americans, and it’s 100% unnecessary and avoidable,” said Todd Walker, who missed his mom’s 80th birthday when his flight was canceled over the weekend.
The FAA also expanded flight restrictions Monday, barring business jets and many private flights from using a dozen airports already under commercial flight limits.
Airports nationwide have seen intermittent delays since the shutdown began because the FAA slows air traffic when it’s short on controllers to ensure flights remain safe.
The shutdown has made controllers’ demanding jobs even more stressful, leading to fatigue and increased risks, said Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. He said the number who are retiring or quitting is “growing” by the day.
During the six weekends since the shutdown began, an average of 30 air traffic control facilities had staffing issues. That’s almost four times the number on weekends this year before the shutdown, according to an Associated Press analysis of operations plans sent through the Air Traffic Control System Command Center system.
Tuesday will be the second missed payday for controllers. It’s unclear how quickly they might be paid once the shutdown ends — it took more than two months to receive full back pay after the 35-day shutdown that ended in 2019, Daniels said.
The latest shutdown and money worries have become regular “dinnertime conversations” for Amy Lark and her husband, both Washington, D.C., area air traffic controllers.
“Yesterday, my kids asked me how long we could stay in our house,” Lark said. Still, she said controllers remain “100% committed.”
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Yamat reported from Las Vegas and Funk from Omaha, Nebraska. Associated Press writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Ken Sweet, Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Michael R. Sisak in New York; Stephen Groves and Kevin Freking in Washington; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. airlines canceled more than 2,700 flights on Sunday as Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned that air traffic across the nation would “slow to a trickle” if the federal government shutdown lingered into the busy Thanksgiving travel holiday season.
The slowdown at 40 of the nation’s busiest airports began to cause more widespread disruptions in its third day. The FAA last week ordered flight cuts at the nation’s busiest airports as some air traffic controllers, who have gone unpaid for nearly a month, have stopped showing up for work.
In addition, nearly 10,000 flight delays were reported on Sunday alone, according to FlightAware, a website that tracks air travel disruptions. More than 1,000 flights were canceled Friday, and more than 1,500 on Saturday.
The FAA reductions started Friday at 4% and were set to increase to 10% by Nov. 14. They are in effect from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. local time and will impact all commercial airlines.
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta stood to have the most cancellations Sunday, followed by Chicago O’Hare International, where wintry weather threatened. In Georgia, weather could also be a factor, with the National Weather Service office in Atlanta warning of widespread freezing conditions through Tuesday.
Traveler Kyra March finally arrived at Hartsfield-Jackson on Sunday after a series of postponements the day before.
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“I was coming from Tampa and that flight got delayed, delayed, delayed. Then it was canceled and then rebooked. And so I had to stay at a hotel and then came back this morning,” she said.
The FAA said staffing shortages at Newark and LaGuardia Airport in New York were leading to average departure delays of about 75 minutes.
Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport in Michigan was mostly empty Sunday morning, with minimal wait times at security checkpoints as delays and cancellations filled the departures and arrivals boards.
Earlier Sunday, Duffy warned that U.S. air traffic could decline significantly if the shutdown persisted. He said additional flight cuts — perhaps up to 20% — might be needed, particularly if controllers receive no pay for a second straight pay period.
“More controllers aren’t coming to work day by day, the further they go without a paycheck,” Duffy told “Fox News Sunday.”
“As I look two weeks out, as we get closer to Thanksgiving travel, I think what’s going to happen is you’re going to have air travel slow to a trickle as everyone wants to travel to see their families,” Duffy said.
With “very few” controllers working, “you’ll have a few flights taking off and landing” and thousands of cancellations, he said.
“You’re going to have massive disruption. I think a lot of angry Americans. I think we have to be honest about where this is going. It doesn’t get better,” Duffy said. “It gets worse until these air traffic controllers are going to be paid.”
The government has been short of air traffic controllers for years, and multiple presidential administrations have tried to convince retirement-age controllers to remain on the job. Duffy said the shutdown has exacerbated the problem, leading some air traffic controllers to speed up their retirements.
“Up to 15 or 20 a day are retiring,” Duffy said on CNN.
Duffy said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth texted him with an offer to lend military air traffic controllers, but it’s unclear whether the staff is certified to work on civilian systems.
Duffy denied Democratic charges that the flight cancellations are a political tactic, saying they were necessary due to increasing near-misses from an overtaxed system.
“I needed to take action to keep people safe,” Duffy said. “I’m doing what I can in a mess that Democrats have put in my lap.”
Airlines for America, a trade group representing U.S. carriers, said air traffic control staffing-related delays exceeded 3,000 hours on Saturday, the highest of the shutdown, and that staffing problems contributed to 71% of delay time.
From Oct. 1 to Nov. 7, controller shortages have disrupted more than 4 million passengers on U.S. carriers, according to Airlines for America.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, ranking member of the Senate’s Aviation, Space and Innovation Subcommittee, on Monday criticized President Trump after he threatened to dock the pay of air traffic controllers who took off work amid staffing shortages and the government shutdown.
“It’s disgraceful and dangerous to threaten to punish controllers who put the safety of pilots and passengers first by refusing to direct air traffic when their performance would’ve been degraded by a diagnosed illness,” Duckworth said in a statement.
Earlier Monday, Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social that “[a]ll Air Traffic Controllers must get back to work, NOW!!! Anyone who doesn’t will be substantially ‘docked.’” The president said he would recommend a $10,000 bonus, per person, for those who didn’t take “ANY TIME OFF” during the shutdown.
“For those that did nothing but complain, and took time off, even though everyone knew they would be paid, IN FULL, shortly into the future, I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU,” Mr. Trump wrote.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy later said he agrees with the president.
“Air traffic controllers NEED to show up for work! To those who have worked throughout the shutdown — thank you for your patriotism and commitment to keeping our skies safe. I will work with Congress to reward your commitment,” Duffy said.
Duckworth voted no on the latest measure to end the government shutdown, splitting with eight moderate Senate Democrats who voted in favor of a bill that would extend government funding through January 2026. The agreement with Republicans would also ensure federal workers, including air traffic controllers, receive back pay since the shutdown began on Oct. 1.
