I’m sure you know about the Air Canada plane crashing into a fire truck on the ground at La Guardia. The pilots were killed, over forty people were hospitalized and the runway at a busy airport was shut down. You’d think getting the investigation going and getting that runway open would be a priority. However the TSA in Houston kept an investigator assigned to travel to NYC stranded in line for security screening. For HOURS in fact. This idiocy is only just now in the news.
It startles many people that aircraft including and especially commercial ones crash on the ground. Even more startling, accidents/crashes on runways and taxi areas cause fatalities. In fact, the worst airliner crash in history took place on the ground (in Spain at Tenerife) when two Boeing 747s collided killing 583 people. It stands to reason that ground traffic control is a bigger deal, especially at busy commercial airports than people realize. So, when an already stressed air travel system has a runway crash at a major airport causing runway shutdown getting investigators on-scene is pretty freaking important. However the TSA in Houston didn’t care. The Chair of the NTSB had to plead with them to allow an investigator through security after hours of delay!
WHAT THE HELL? One would assume the Air Traffic Control Specialist assigned to the ground crash at La Guardia had all their NTSB credentials ready to show upon arrival at the airport in Houston. Yet despite the (duh!) ripple effects closure of at least one runway was already causing across the system the investigator was stuck in a TSA line for over three freaking hours according to reporting from Business Insider. I have to admit my first thought jumped to the new ICE presence at major airports and whether they factored into the delay. As we know even U.S. citizens they for whatever reason suspect are subject to being whisked off for scrutiny, often followed by a trip to a detention center.
Even if ICE had nothing to do with it what the hell is wrong with the TSA that this investigator wasn’t whisked through security screening? It literally took, after hours of delay the head of the NTSB calling to plead with them to allow that person to get on a plane to NYC:
Jennifer Homendy, chair of the NTSB, said on Monday that one investigator brought in to investigate the deadly crash was stuck in the TSA line at an airport in Houston for hours.
“Our air traffic control specialist was in line with TSA for three hours until we called in Houston to beg to see if we can get her through so we can get her here,” Homendy said during a press conference.
A combination of TSA delays, Newark’s temporary ground stop, and the collision that caused LaGuardia to temporarily close made it “a really big challenge” to quickly assemble the full team in New York. The team assembled by plane, train, and automobile to reach the investigation site.
Common sense tells me at least that a person like this with their credentials and an order they can show on their smartphone (a text or email with an NTSB number to call for verification) would simple report to the first TSA agent they came across, be immediately screened and escorted to the boarding area for their flight! Instead we had over three hours of delay and the head of the NTSB having to personally intervene to get her investigator on a flight. I have to ask myself, and you should to whether this was a fluke, a random cluster-f**k of dumbassery by multiple TSA personnel or something darker?
What do I mean by ‘something darker’ you ask. DHS, the parent agency of the TSA is a behemoth. From the start it was too big and too bloated and subjected the agencies it contained to political priorities. It needs to be broken up but that’s a separate matter to tackle. What I’m driving at is that most people assume NTSB which has a broader mission than investigating air crashes is part of DHS. It’s not. Originally created as part of the new Department of Transportation in 1967, it was split off in 1974 as an independent agency. (Congress used to sometimes do good, smart things) The thinking behind establishing NTSB as it’s own agency was to ensure it had full authority to conduct investigations and make recommendations without being subject to influence by politically appointed heads of agencies they’d investigate.
That’s probably always rankled DHS but I’m betting it REALLY bugs them under Trump 2.0. The inability to control NTSB, especially when they criticize (think about the helicopter/airliner crash near the Pentagon last year) is something Team Trump hates. And Trump hates the lack of ability to control what they report more than anyone! I find it more than plausible that someone in the administration if not Trump himself suggested finding a way to throw sand in the gears of the NTSB. For example by keeping them from quickly assembling/deploying a response team to conduct an investigation.
Think about it for a minute, then tell me I’m crazy for suggesting Trump and his minions would make this type of ‘power play.’ IF NTSB was part of DHS you can be sure in this or any investigation whatever unqualified hack Trump has in charge of DHS would ensure any final report on an accident/incident is whitewashed to if not make Trump look good at least minimize criticism and assign blame to someone other than him or one of his agency heads. No doubt a career employee who’d been hired by a prior administration – a Democratic one of course.
Like so many agencies the NTSB became the proverbial Gold Standard for what they do. Their experts have often been called in by foreign countries to assist with investigations, and again I remind you they do much more than investigate aircraft/airliner accidents. A quick look at the NTSB website is illuminating. If you scroll down a bit to the ‘Who We Are and What We Do section you learn how broad their mission and authority is:
The National Transportation Safety Board is an independent federal agency charged by Congress with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States and significant events in the other modes of transportation—railroad, transit, highway, marine, pipeline, and commercial space. We determine the probable causes of the accidents and events we investigate and issue safety recommendations aimed at preventing future occurrences.
In addition, we conduct transportation safety research studies and offer information and other assistance to family members and survivors for each accident or event we investigate.
We also serve as the appellate authority for enforcement actions involving aviation and mariner certificates issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and US Coast Guard, and we adjudicate appeals of civil penalty actions taken by the FAA.
That last part is interesting, at least to me. Let’s say the FAA metes out a punishment or policy change the recipient finds unfair. Neither the FAA or DHS has final authority. Nope, the NTSB has its very own set of four appellate jurisdictions!
Put another way, agencies (including the FAA) answer to them, and not the other way around! Trump can’t control them. Period. Again I say that simply isn’t something he’s willing to accept. Given the problems air travel is dealing with due to the DHS shutdown a crash was inevitable. We’ll be luck in fact if this is the worst that happens. That’s why I say it’s not a stretch that Trump and his inner circle haven’t been scheming for a way to exert control over the NTSB. Messing with their ability to even get people on site to start an investigation would seem like a good idea to these asshats. Again I say we are lucky Congress acted as wisely as they did in 1974. If you click on the ‘About Us’ tab and select ‘History’ from the drop-down menu it’s clear Congress was firing on all cylinders:
In 1974, Congress reestablished the NTSB as a separate entity outside the US DOT, reasoning that “no federal agency can properly perform such [investigatory] functions unless it is totally separate and independent from any other . . . agency of the United States.”
It’s safe to say Trump isn’t going to like the final report when it comes out. However for all his power and willingness to abuse it he can’t stop the NTSB from telling the truth. Actual truth for Trump is worse than Holy Water or sunlight to a vampire.
It will be interesting to see in the weeks and months ahead if Team Trump uses this or another crash/indident(s) to demand Congress change the NTSB’s charter – to bring it under the control of DHS. I wonder if someone in Vegas has already created odd on the attempt at least being made? In the meantime register your outrage on social media and to elected representatives about the TSA holding up for at least several hours a NTSB investigator from travelling to New York’s La Guardia to investigate a crash. Keep in mind the final report will make note of staffing shortfalls and other issues that can be laid at the feet of the Trump administration.
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
The inefficiency, obfuscation, and delay isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.