Videos: Gov't shutdown creates 'more risk' for air travel, top Trump official warns

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy warned on Sunday that the continued federal government shutdown is causing “more risk” for air travel safety as some air traffic controllers remain unpaid.

During a Sunday interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Duffy explained that President Donald Trump’s administration is “working overtime” to ensure that the U.S. air travel system remains safe during the government shutdown.

“We will slow traffic down, you’ll see delays, we’ll have flights canceled to make sure the system is safe,” Duffy told Brennan. “But we have to be honest, when we have controllers, where we have shortages and towers and TRACONs doing two jobs, does it add more risk into the system? Sure, it does.”

“But again, we’re always managing that,” Duffy continued. “Again, we don’t want crashes, we want people to go safely, and so we will slow and stop traffic if we don’t think we can manage it in a way that keeps people safe as they go from point A to point B.”

During Sunday’s interview, Brennan asked Duffy about a report that claimed that 80 percent of air traffic controllers were missing in New York on the same day that a United Airlines airplane “clipped” another airplane at LaGuardia Airport. While Duffy said he had not reviewed a final report on the incident, he suggested that the incident was likely the result of “pilot error.”

Duffy explained that the government shutdown will not cause a “flight emergency” because the Trump administration will “stop traffic” if needed and will not let air travel become a “safety issue.” The transportation secretary warned that the shutdown could cause additional delays at airports across the country.

“We’ve seen problems at LA, in Dallas, in DC, Boston, Atlanta,” Duffy said. “And so I think it’s only going to get worse.”

Duffy noted that some trainee air traffic controllers have not received a paycheck in more than a month due to the shutdown.

“They’re confronted with a decision: do I put food on my kids’ table, do I put gas in the car, do I pay my rent, or do I go to work and not get paid?” Duffy stated. “They’re making life decisions that they shouldn’t have to make.”

“They deserve a paycheck,” Duffy added.

Asked why the Trump administration has not been able to find funding to pay air traffic controllers during the shutdown, Duffy said that while the president has “done all he can to minimize the pain of the shutdown,” there are “really strict rules around what money we can use.”

Duffy added, “The simple answer is: vote to open the government.”