In Washington, there was little sign that the standoff between Trump’s Republicans and opposition Democrats would end soon. Democrats have refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security without new curbs on immigration agents, who have killed US citizens and sparked public outrage during their crackdown.
Though the White House has engaged in talks, Trump said on Monday he would not sign off on any compromise until Congress first passed a series of voting restrictions that Democrats have rejected, adding another potential roadblock to a deal.
Airlines are also facing rising fuel costs, which have spiked since the US and Israel attacked Iran more than three weeks ago. United Airlines said on Friday it would cut flights through the busy summer travel season, citing elevated oil prices.
LAGUARDIA COLLISION KILLS TWO, SEVERAL HOSPITALISED
In New York, the pilot and first officer of an Air Canada Express jet were killed when the plane collided with a fire truck while it was landing, while another nine people were hospitalised with serious injuries. The CRJ-900 plane, operated by regional partner Jazz Aviation, had been carrying 72 passengers and four crew members. Some 572 flights were cancelled, more than 50 per cent of LaGuardia’s daily total.
A separate 35-minute ground stop at nearby Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday morning added to delays after air traffic controllers evacuated their tower because of a burning smell from an elevator, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
US aviation has faced a chronic shortage of air traffic controllers, but it was not immediately clear what led to the crash. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and other officials were traveling to New York to investigate. Air-crash investigations typically find that accidents result from multiple contributing factors, rather than a single cause.
Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said the fire truck was responding to a separate aircraft that had reported an “issue with odour.”
According to air traffic control audio, a controller can be heard telling the craft that a fire truck was en route and clearing a truck to cross a runway. Moments later, the controller can be heard saying: “Stop, stop, stop, truck 1 stop, truck 1, stop.”
On Monday morning, the Air Canada jet could be seen on the runway, surrounded by emergency vehicles, its crushed cockpit pointing skyward. By Monday afternoon, LaGuardia had reopened one of its runways.