A group of deportees was left on an airport tarmac for 13 hours when their ICE flight was stranded in New Hampshire by a blizzard, according to a report.
Officials for Portsmouth International Airport, which is often used for refueling before deportation flights. say they received just 15 minutes’ warning that the flight was inbound early on Monday morning.
It had originated in Harlingen, Texas, around 8:15 pm local time on Sunday, and landed at 1:09 am; flight records indicated the plane was a Boeing 767-300, The Boston Globe reported, with a maximum capacity of 290 seats.
The flight, operated by Omni Air International, was unable to continue due to blizzard conditions at the airport, and detainees were left stranded on the aircraft for around 13 hours until they were finally allowed to deboard into the terminal around 2pm.
Due to the time on the ground, the flight crew exceeded their maximum allowable duty time, triggering a mandatory rest period that further delayed the schedule, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told the newspaper.
“Detainees are being provided catered meals, continuous access to drinking water, and appropriate restroom facilities for the duration of the delay,” the spokesperson said.
“All required prescription medications are being supplied at no cost, and medical personnel are available to provide proper medical care. ICE personnel are conducting regular welfare checks to ensure everyone’s well-being, comfort, and dignity while awaiting departure.”
The flight was finally scheduled to depart around midnight, after around 23 hours on the ground.
The airport, which is legally unable to refuse service to federal aircraft and cannot pick and choose who lands there, took a dim view of an aircraft heading to New Hampshire despite well-publicized warnings about blizzard conditions.
Spokesperson Tiffany Eddy confirmed to The Boston Globe that the airport only learned the flight was incoming 15 minutes before its arrival.
“Had we been informed in advance of their intent to land at [the airport] during the blizzard, we would have strongly advised against it and encouraged them to divert to another airport not being impacted by this severe winter storm,” she said.
The debacle has led to finger-pointing over who was responsible for making such a call.
Seth Miller, a Democratic state representative who writes about aviation, told The Boston Globe it was “a bit misguided” to go ahead and land in such conditions when the weather in New England was well known before it departed Texas.
Those decisions, Miller said, fell to Omni Air and DHS: “The buck has to stop there.”
A local reporter was denied access on Monday evening to the terminal where the detainees were being held; Portsmouth police dispatched officers to the airport that afternoon amid concerns of a protest, which did not appear to eventuate.
DHS did not immediately respond to a query about the flight’s destination and the number of detainees aboard, but according to Human Rights First’s ICE Flight Monitor, at least five other deportation flights have refueled in Portsmouth en route to Asia.
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