Industry Official Issues Warning on ‘Unsafe’ Thanksgiving Flights This Week

Travelers queue up at the north security checkpoint in the main terminal of Denver International Airport in Denver on May 26, 2022. David Zalubowski/AP Photo

An air industry official warned that some Thanksgiving flights could be “unsafe” as it is estimated that a record number of Americans will travel during the upcoming holiday season.

“We just received an email last week that resources are depleted as far as our flying Air Marshals,” Sonya LaBosco, the head of the Air Marshal National Council, said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday.

The Air Marshal National Council says it is a lobbying organization that represents Federal Air Marshals. Those marshals are under the supervision of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and are trained to blend into a crowd of plane passengers to try and thwart potential terrorist attacks targeting planes.

In a post to X on Tuesday, Ms. LaBosco claimed that the federal government has redirected Air Marshals to the border to “[hand] out water” and suggested that it’s making domestic flights more unsafe amid the significant number of travelers this week. The Federal Aviation Administration, she wrote, “has received 1,820 reports of unruly passengers on board flights ... wanna guess how many of those flights had Federal Air Marshals to protect the passengers?”

“We are ushering in illegal immigrants on the border and leaving the traveling public unsafe,” she added to Fox News.

She then stated that the marshals are “either on the border for illegal immigrants or we’re following folks from January 2021. We’re not doing our regular missions where we’re out there looking for the bad guys. So right now, on most flights, you’re not going to have air marshals.”

Ms. LaBosco then claimed travelers should be “alarmed” and suggested that when boarding a flight, “you need to look around to see who you might be able to ask to help you, like a good Samaritan, because you’re kind of on your own.”

“If anything happens, please don’t wait. There’s going to be no law enforcement that’s going to help you, so you need to have a plan. Look where the exit doors are. Look where your flight attendants are standing around you,” she added. “I would be looking around for a football player ... a pretty big guy or a couple big guys, in case you needed to take action.”

The Epoch Times has contacted the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the TSA, for comment on Tuesday. Neither the TSA nor Homeland Security have issued a public comment on Ms. LaBosco’s statements.

Last month, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a longtime critic of the Biden administration’s border policies, sent a letter in October to the TSA chief and asked “whether the deployment of federal air marshals to assist along the southwest border is risking the safety of the flying public.”

“Security incidents continue to occur in the sky, meaning TSA’s decision to take air marshals off flights and deploy them to the border may be putting the traveling public at risk,” his letter stated.

It added that during a March 2023 flight, a passenger on a United Airlines flight “attempted to open the emergency door and kill everyone on board.” During another flight in 2022, a passenger held a razor to another passenger’s throat and made threats, his letter said.

“Thankfully the other passengers and crew subdued the individuals, but these events should never have happened in the first place,” it continued to say. “While it is unknown whether air marshals would have been on those particular flights, what is known is that on both occasions at least 200 air marshals were busy assisting at the southern border and would not have been available to protect those flights.”

Travel Figures

This week, the busiest days to fly will be Tuesday and Wednesday as well as the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The TSA expects to screen 2.6 million passengers on Tuesday and 2.7 million passengers on Wednesday. Sunday will draw the largest crowds with an estimated 2.9 million passengers, which would narrowly eclipse a record set on June 30.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said during a news conference on Monday that the government has tried to better prepare for holiday travel over the last year by hiring more air traffic controllers, opening new air routes along the East Coast, and providing grants to airports for snowplows and deicing equipment. But he warned travelers to check road conditions and flight times before leaving home. He did not make mention of the status of Air Marshals on flights.

Travelers queue up to pass through the south security checkpoint at Denver International Airport, in Denver on Nov. 20, 2023. David Zalubowski/AP

Meanwhile, AAA, formerly known as the American Automobile Association, forecasts that 55.4 million Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home between next Wednesday and the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with roads likely to be the most clogged on Wednesday.

A widespread weather system could snarl air travel and road traffic. The system was expected to move from the southern Plains to the Northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday, bringing possible thunderstorms, sleet, and snow.

Parts of Maine, Vermont, and northern New Hampshire are expected to get 3 to 7 inches of snow between Tuesday night and Wednesday, according to federal forecasters.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.