LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Earlier than North Las Vegas pilots take off, they’re taxiing to the air site visitors management tower to drop off a care bundle for federal employees going with out pay amid day 37 of the federal government shutdown.
Pilots stacked bins of pasta, peanut butter, and baked beans on the sidewalk entrance of the North Las Vegas Airport site visitors tower on Thursday to assist the round 21 unpaid controllers above who maintain the skies organized.
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“It’s not about politics,” Jeffrey Lustick, an aviation legal professional and pilot, stated. “These people are dedicated public servants. They’re career-level trained professionals that work for the FAA, and they really have no other way to go, and we wanted to come in and support them.”
For a number of hours, 8 Information Now crews noticed pilots dropping off Costco pizzas for air site visitors controllers, amongst different gadgets.
Lustick stated the affect of the federal government shutdown has not made a distinction within the move of site visitors, even because the North Las Vegas Airport can rank the second busiest in Nevada.
“I haven’t heard any concerns, but I think that there has been a shortage of air traffic controllers for a long time, and in a situation where they’re not getting paid, it just doesn’t bode well for air traffic safety,” he stated. “We hope that the situation improves, but at least in the North Las Vegas tower, we’re working hard to make sure that that doesn’t result in an outage of service, or cutting back in the service times that we can have our safety net, our air traffic controllers in place.”
A spokesperson for Harry Reid Worldwide Airport stated in a press release to eight Information Now that the airport will proceed as regular and stay totally operational.
“We are aware of the FAA’s announcement regarding a planned 10% reduction in air traffic beginning Friday, Nov. 7, and are awaiting additional information from the agency,” the airport spokesperson wrote. “As always, flight delays or cancellations elsewhere in the country may still impact travel nationwide. We encourage travelers to check directly with their airlines for the most up-to-date flight information.”
Harry Reid Worldwide Airport maintains common communication with different airports companions, together with the FAA or TSA, and plans to proceed to take action, in accordance with the airport spokesperson.
Pilots informed 8 Information Now, against this, Henderson Govt Airport operates a non-federal management tower and has not appeared as impacted by the federal government shutdown.
