Government Shutdown

The Air Canada pilot and co-pilot killed in Sunday night’s horrific collision between a regional jet and emergency vehicle have been identified as Antoine Forest and Mackenzie Gunther.

UPDATE: Pilot, Co-Pilot Confirmed Dead After Horrific Airplane Collision At LaGuardia Airport

“The two pilots were flying an Air Canada Express CRJ-900 regional jet operated by Jazz Aviation, Air Canada’s regional partner,” Fox News reports.

Gunther was the first officer alongside pilot Forest.

Antoine Forest identified as one of the Air Canada pilots killed in LaGuardia plane crash https://t.co/8yw8dHDWNi pic.twitter.com/5mJpoyhsGF

— New York Post (@nypost) March 23, 2026

Atlanta’s Delta Airlines announced this week that it is suspending its stand-alone service for members of Congress until the TSA is fully funded. #gapol https://t.co/UDxZFZ0Dgw

— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) March 24, 2026

Here’s more:

You read that right. The same members of Congress who have failed to fund the TSA for the last six weeks may or may not be waiting in the unimaginably long security lines they’re causing. They don’t all use the perk, but according to Cornyn, they do all have the option.

…

That perk is just one of a bundle that have made flying a lot easier for the frequent flyers in Congress, who often are on an airplane twice a week or more commuting to Washington and back.

Along with skipping the lines, some members of Congress also request local police escorts to their gates. And they all get access to major airlines’ dedicated Congressional service desks to book trips, make last-minute changes, and even reserve seats on one, two or three flights on the same day, depending on congressional vote schedules.

In regular times, these could be seen as prudent security measures for high-profile flyers or simply good customer service for some of the airlines’ best customers. But taken together, they also inoculate Congress from the chaos Washington is causing.

Apparently just as fed up as the rest of us, Atlanta’s Delta Airlines announced this week that it is suspending its stand-alone service for members of Congress until the TSA is fully funded.

“Due to the impact on resources from the longstanding government shutdown, Delta will temporarily suspend specialty services to members of Congress flying Delta,” the statement read. “Next to safety, Delta’s No. 1 priority is taking care of our people and customers, which has become increasingly difficult in the current environment.”

Senate Republicans are scrambling to break the five-and-a-half-week partial government shutdown, floating a plan to fund most of the Department of Homeland Security while cutting out some of the most politically charged immigration programs, according to senior GOP sources familiar with the talks.

The framework began to take shape after a White House meeting late Monday and is expected to dominate discussions at Tuesday’s GOP Conference luncheon on Capitol Hill.

More than willing to hold Americans’ ease of travel hostage, Sen. Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) and his Democratic allies in the U.S. Senate initiated a partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security last month, conditioning the passage of the FY2026 DHS appropriations bill on restrictions to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection operations.

This Democratic denial of funding that has survived over four votes on theme has manifested in long lines and headaches at airports across the country — especially at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which urged travelers on Monday morning to “arrive at least 4 hours early” on account of Transportation Security Administration staffing constraints and the correlated “longer than normal wait times at security checkpoints.”

‘We thought we would be safe enough.’