Tag: air travel

Atlanta forfeits $37.5M in airport funds after refusing to agree to Trump’s DEI ban

Atlanta’s airport has forfeited at least $37.5 million because city leaders have refused to disavow diversity, equity and inclusion programs as mandated by President Donald Trump’s administration.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest airport by passenger traffic, declined on July 29 to agree to terms set out by the Federal Aviation Administration. Those terms certify that the airport doesn’t “operate any programs promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws.”

That language mirrors a January executive order signed by Trump banning DEI programs operated by anyone doing business with or receiving money from the federal government.

The FAA told the Atlanta airport, owned and controlled by the city government, that it was holding back $57 million, The Journal-Constitution reports. But federal authorities said $19 million of that money would be available to Atlanta in the next federal budget year if it agrees to the language then.

The money would have gone to repave taxiways and renovate public restrooms, among other projects.

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Delta to replace hundreds of engine parts after passengers, crew suffer brain injuries from toxic fume leaks

Delta Air Lines is overhauling hundreds of engine parts in its fleet after toxic fumes have been leaking into plane cockpits and cabins, causing brain damage to crew members and passengers.

The carrier will replace auxiliary power units on more than 300 Airbus A320 planes as a part of a safety initiative that began in 2022, Delta confirmed to multiple outlets.

The undertaking to replace the engines that provide power on the ground for essential systems like air conditioning and electrical services is over 90% complete, the airline told CBS News.

The move comes as airlines have filed thousands of reports with the Federal Aviation Administration, warning that engines can cause toxic fumes to seep into cockpits and cabins, according to an investigation by the Wall Street Journal.

The number of cases has surged in recent years, with Airbus’s widely used A320 jets at the center of the spike, records obtained by the Journal showed

One Delta jet bound for South Carolina was forced back to Atlanta after thick smoke poured through the overhead vents.

The mayhem sent passengers scrambling for fresh air to breathe.

“Breathe through your clothing, stay low,” a Delta flight attendant told passengers over the loudspeaker at the time as the pilots declared an emergency.

In a separate incident, JetBlue flight attendant Florence Chesson told the Journal she was left with a traumatic brain injury and permanent nerve damage after breathing the fumes on a flight to Puerto Rico.

She recalled feeling as if she was drugged midair, then witnessed a fellow crew member collapse and vomit beside her.

The two were rushed to the hospital after landing.

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American travelers to Europe will be forced to hand over biodata before flights starting next month

Americans flying to Europe will need to be fingerprinted under new EU regulations being brought in next month. 

From October 12, US citizens will have to go through the EU’s Entry and Exit System to enter 29 countries, including France, Germany, Italy and Spain. 

Under the new system, passport control agents will take fingerprints, a facial image and passport details. 

It will be introduced gradually over six months, according to advice from the US Department of State website, which also includes the full list of countries impacted.  

The new digital border program is likely to prompt longer wait times at security on entry to the EU countries as travelers have to register upon their first entry to the impacted zone, known as the Schengen Area. 

American passengers will pass through e-gates and a computerized system which will automatically check passports on entry to the 29 countries within this zone. 

However, once a traveler is within the borders of the Schengen Area, they are free to travel between the 29 countries with minimal security checks. 

The zone includes 25 EU member states, and four non-EU member states – Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. 

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FAA Unveils Pilot Program to Fast-Track Drone, Air Taxi Deployment

A new pilot program announced on Sept. 12 by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy could one day see Americans traveling short distances in unmanned aerial taxis.

The Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program (eIPP) has five components consisting of both piloted and unmanned aircraft, the Federal Aviation Administration said. They are Short-range air taxis; long-range fixed-wing flights; cargo services; new types of airlift methods for emergency management, medical transport, or offshore energy facilities; and enhanced safety and efficiencies in automation for advanced air mobility (AAM) operations.

The five pilot projects are expected to run for three years after the first one becomes operational, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a news release. The program will be a public-private partnership between state and local governments and private-sector industries working in conjunction to develop new methods and regulations for safe operations of drones and other types of AAM vehicles, Duffy said.

“The next great technological revolution in aviation is here,” he said.

“The United States will lead the way, and doing so will cement America’s status as a global leader in transportation innovation. By safely testing the deployment of these futuristic air taxis and other AAM vehicles, we can fundamentally improve how the traveling public and products move.”

The action follows a June 6 executive order by President Donald Trump to put America at the forefront of the nascent drone and unmanned aircraft industry, which is crucial to reshaping the future of aviation, the order stated. Emerging technologies—especially electric vertical takeoff and landing—have the potential to modernize the way cargo and passengers are transported, the order noted.

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Surge in pilot deaths and incapacitation began in 2021, and the FAA has been trying to cover it up

  • A sudden, unprecedented surge in pilot deaths and incapacitations began in 2021, with a 40 percent increase in pilots dying before retirement age and a tripling of long-term disabilities, coinciding with COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
  • FAA regulations were violated en masse when airlines coerced pilots into taking experimental mRNA injections, despite federal laws prohibiting pilots from using unapproved medical products.
  • Pilots were trapped in an impossible choice: Violate their religious or medical convictions and risk their health, or refuse the jab and lose their livelihoods — all while the FAA abandoned its duty to track vaccine-related adverse events.
  • The spike protein produced by mRNA jabs is directly toxic, causing inflammation, blood clots, myocarditis, and neurological damage — conditions that are catastrophic in a cockpit.
  • The FAA dismantled its pilot incapacitation database in 2022, eliminating a critical tool for tracking trends in pilot health just as incidents began to skyrocket.
  • Near-misses and in-flight emergencies have reached crisis levels, with aviation officials attributing the chaos to everything but the elephant in the room: the COVID-19 vaccines.
  • Pilots describe a culture of fear and silence, where speaking out against the jabs means professional suicide, leaving passengers unknowingly at the mercy of impaired crews.

The great airline vaccine heist: How pilots were strong-armed into a medical experiment

When the COVID-19 vaccines rolled out under Emergency Use Authorization, they came with a critical caveat: No one could be forced to take them. That legal protection was swiftly ignored. For airline pilots, the choice wasn’t really a choice at all. It was a gun to the head — comply or be erased. Major carriers like United Airlines didn’t just encourage the jab; they demanded it, offering cash bonuses to the compliant and pink slips to the resistant. Never mind that federal aviation law explicitly prohibits pilots from using experimental medications. Never mind that the FAA’s own Aeromedical Advice Manual warns against unapproved substances that could impair performance. The rules were rewritten in real time, not by scientists or safety experts, but by corporate executives and bureaucrats who had already decided the narrative: Get the shot, or get out.

Dr. Kevin Stillwagon, a retired airline pilot and immunology expert, doesn’t mince words. “They were illegal,” he says of the mandates. “You cannot put an experimental product into a pilot.” The law is clear: If a pilot takes an unapproved substance, flight surgeons must ground them until the FAA verifies its safety. But in 2021, that process was bypassed entirely. Airlines, backed by the federal government, bulldozed through legal and ethical barriers, turning pilots into lab rats in a real-world trial with no control group. The result? A wave of cardiac arrests, neurological disorders, and sudden deaths that has left the industry scrambling to explain away the carnage.

Stillwagon’s data is damning. Before 2021, pilot incapacitations were rare — about eight per year, according to a 2018 study in Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance. But in the wake of the vaccine rollout, the numbers exploded. At Washington National Airport alone, near-misses jumped from one in decades to 28 in a single year. The FAA’s own 2004 research found that pilot cardiac events were the leading cause of in-flight fatalities. Now, those events are happening at an unprecedented rate, and the agency’s response? Cricket sounds. Worse, they discontinued their centralized database for tracking pilot incapacitations in 2022, just as the crisis was unfolding. Coincidence? Stillwagon doesn’t think so. “The data silence that the FAA has created is preventing systemic trends from being detected,” he warns. In other words, they’re hiding the bodies.

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Sudden Deaths, Incapacitations Soar Among COVID-Jabbed Airline Pilots

“Something happened in 2021” that has jeopardized air travel safety, according to a disturbing report by Dr. Kevin Stillwagon, a retired airline pilot and immunology expert.

Mounting evidence points to the COVID-19 vaccinations that airlines, acting under pressure from the U.S. government, mandated or otherwise coerced their cockpit, cabin, and ground crews into taking.

Since 2021, there has been a marked increase in deaths of “younger” airline pilots while long-term disabilities for pilots have skyrocketed. All of this has been accompanied by an astronomical increase of near-miss incidents at the nation’s airports.

“Incapacitations of pilots are definitely increasing, especially in younger pilots,” Stillwagon said in a video discussion with Nicolas Hulscher, an epidemiologist and administrator at the McCullough Foundation.

“There was a 40% increase in pilots dying early – before mandatory retirement age of 65 – in 2021,” Stillwagon said.

“Starting in 2021, pilot long-term disabilities have tripled,” he noted. “Prior to 2021, there was only one near-miss at the Washington National Airport (DCA).  But after 2021, there were 28 near-misses per year.”

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Decades Later, It’s Time To Seriously Rethink—And Reduce—The TSA 

As a retired international airline captain, my relationship with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has been fraught ever since its inception after 9/11. Before that seismic event, I logged countless hours as a Delta Airlines pilot, operating in an environment defined by professionalism and mutual respect among crew, passengers, and airport staff. Today, I view the TSA not as an indispensable pillar of aviation safety, but as an institution whose practices have needlessly burdened travelers and which, after more than two decades, may do more harm than good to the spirit and efficiency of air travel. 

Personal Experience with TSA 

My experiences with TSA have run the gamut: some screeners are cordial and efficient, while others act with indifference—or outright hostility. Despite my decades in aviation, both my wife and I found ourselves subjected to heightened scrutiny and what felt like constant harassment at security checkpoints. This pattern was not isolated to us; colleagues and fellow travelers shared similar frustrations. The inconsistency in treatment reflects deeper problems in TSA’s culture and priorities. 

More troubling is my memory of reporting suspicious activities in airports and on airplanes long before 9/11—concerns that were either ignored or dismissed. In the worst cases, I was treated not as a professional fulfilling a duty of care, but as an alarmist, or, unconscionably, accused of prejudice. These failures of the pre-TSA security apparatus were tragic enough. The answer, however, was not to swing to the other extreme by creating an agency whose methods too often resemble performative security theater rather than effective defense. 

TSA: Record Size, Questionable Effectiveness 

The TSA today is larger, wealthier, and more technologically advanced than at any point in its history: in 2024, it screened over 900 million passengers, processed nearly half a billion checked bags, and employed the largest screening workforce on record.  The agency celebrates its lowered attrition rates, large-scale recruitments, and new technologies, but these metrics only tell part of the story. What goes unaddressed mainly is the pressing question: has all this intrusion, inconvenience, and expense made us significantly safer? 

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Airlines urge senators to reject bill limiting facial recognition

A group representing several major airlines alongside travel companies and airports is opposing a Senate bill that would require the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to generally use manual ID verification at security checkpoints instead of facial recognition.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), would broadly restrict TSA’s ability to use biometrics and facial recognition, carving out a few exemptions for the agency’s PreCheck and other Trusted Traveler programs. Passengers may still opt in to the use of facial recognition at the checkpoint.

In a letter Monday to Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the air industry groups said the law was a “step backward” and that facial recognition technology made security screenings far more efficient.

“The future of seamless and secure travel relies on the appropriate use of this technology to ensure security effectiveness and operational efficiency as daily travel volume continues to rise,” they wrote. “We are concerned that the vague and confusing exceptions to this blanket ban will have major consequences for the identity verification process, screening operations, and trusted traveler enrollment programs.”

Cruz and Cantwell are their parties’ highest-ranking members of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which is scheduled to mark up the bill Wednesday.

In addition to limiting the use of facial recognition, Merkley’s bill would also require TSA to delete most images collected at checkpoints within 24 hours of a passenger’s departure.

Travelers going through a TSA checkpoint are generally able to opt out of facial recognition, the agency says. Merkley has argued the agency’s enforcement is inconsistent, posting on social media in February about his difficulties navigating the policy at Reagan Washington National Airport.

“This is big government coming to take away your privacy, trying to set up a national surveillance system,” the Oregon Democrat said in February. 

The airlines, however, warned that restricting the use of facial recognition could slow down security and divert TSA’s resources toward maintaining officer staffing, rather than focusing on automated innovations. The group also said it felt it had been insufficiently consulted on the legislation, “despite the major impact the bill would have on aviation security, airports, airlines, travelers, and technology companies.”

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Pete Buttigieg Spent $80 Billion on DEI, Zero Progress on Air Traffic Control Systems

Department of Transportation records and airline industry sources show that under former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the agency funneled more than $80 billion into diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives while delaying critical air traffic control system modernization, as reported by The New York Post.

Federal data reviewed from 2021 to 2024 indicates that nearly 400 DEI-related grants were awarded by the Department of Transportation during Buttigieg’s tenure, a substantial increase from the 60 similar grants awarded under the previous administration.

The funding, drawn heavily from the Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law, accounted for over half of the DOT’s annual budget across several fiscal years.

Airline officials told The Post that Buttigieg demonstrated “little to no interest” in advancing air traffic control modernization efforts.

One executive recounted a meeting in which Buttigieg reportedly remarked that system upgrades would just help airlines “fly more planes,” questioning how that served his interests.

The failure to prioritize modernization left the FAA reliant on systems dating back to the Carter administration, contributing to staffing shortages and travel disruptions. “He was definitely pushing an agenda,” an industry official stated.

In April 2024, a coalition of aviation trade associations sent an urgent letter to DOT leadership, warning that at the FAA’s current hiring pace, it could take nearly 90 years to fully staff critical air traffic control centers in the New York region.

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DHS Secretary Suggests Liquid Carry-On Limits On Flights Might Be Eased

More changes could be coming to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including on whether more liquids can be taken through airport security, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem suggested on July 16.

“But I will tell you—I mean the liquids—I’m questioning. So that may be the next big announcement is what size your liquids need to be,” Noem told NewsNation in a live interview with The Hill published on July 16, referring to the amount of liquids people can transport through security in their carry-on bags. “We’re looking at our scanners.”

The TSA website says that you “are allowed to bring a quart-sized bag of liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes in your carry-on bag and through the checkpoint,” but are “limited to travel-sized containers that are 3.4 ounces (100 milliliters) or less per item.”

Noem’s comment comes just days after she announced that the TSA has lifted its mandate for travelers to take off their shoes at security checkpoints.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) secretary said that her office is “working with several different companies with technologies to give us competitive bids on what they actually do.”

She added that DHS is “working to see what we can do to make the traveling experience much better and more hospitable for individuals, but also still keep safety standards.”

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