ABC News watchers got a surprise Thursday night when David Muir was nowhere to be found behind the anchor desk. Instead, ABC’s Wade Johnson stepped in to deliver what became a scathing report on the Trump administration’s handling of a massive aviation shutdown.
“Good evening and thanks for joining us. I’m Wade Johnson in for David tonight,” Johnson opened.
Over 1,000 flights were delayed across America, with Delta, United, American, and Southwest all slashing their schedules. This stems from the recent government shutdown, leaving air traffic controllers stretched thin with resources. Washington, D.C. travelers faced waits stretching past four hours, while desperate passengers scrambled to salvage weekend and holiday plans.
ABC correspondent Stephanie Ramos painted a grim picture from Newark Airport, where the cancellations triggered a domino effect of delays affecting over 4,000 flights.
“Total headache and disaster,” one stranded traveler told ABC.
Another passenger said, “Actually, I’m freaked out because I’m going to miss a flight, and it’s a family reunion in Florida and it’s, it will be really horrible.”
Another passenger, Karen Soika, couldn’t help laughing at how absurd her rebooked plans had become. “They moved me to JFK an hour earlier,” she said. “Then gave me an 11-hour layover in some place called Port of Spain. Crazy.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, a Trump appointee, defended the drastic measures, insisting the cuts were about safety, not politics.
“Some people have second guessed what we’ve done,” he told reporters. “We have not politicized the airspace. We’re doing everything possible to minimize disruption and keep it safe.”
The Transportation Secretary warned that the 10 percent flight reduction ordered earlier in the week might only be the beginning.
Speaking at a Breitbart News event in Washington, D.C., Duffy said the cutbacks could double if the shutdown drags on.
“If this continues, and I have more controllers who decide they can’t come to work, can’t control the airspace, but instead have to take a second job, with that, you might see 10 percent would have been a good number, because we might go to 15 percent or 20 percent,” Duffy said.
Duffy later walked it back in a statement to The Hill, saying the figure was only theoretical. “Could it go there? That’s possible. There’s no plan for that,” he said.
“We’re making decisions based on what we see in the airspace to make sure it stays safe. I hope it goes the other direction.”
The FAA’s plan had already started on Friday, trimming flights at 40 major airports by 4 percent, then increasing the reductions by 2 percent a day until they reached 10 percent.
Leave a Reply