Author: Roz Hamlett

The deadly LaGuardia accident has renewed attention on airport safety and raised a larger question for regulators: how can drones be safely integrated into the National Airspace System? FAA spokesman Rick Breitenfeldt said that safely integrating drones into the NAS is a top priority for the FAA, and that the agency’s role is to ensure drones can operate safely alongside other aircraft.1 Breitenfeldt said that as of May 2026, more than 865,000 drones were registered in the United States, including about 373,000 recreational drones and more than 491,000 commercial drones. He said the number of registered unmanned aircraft is growing…

Fran Safina is a finder of lost loves, of the material kind, at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). She handles and recovers items that don’t have much meaning or intrinsic value to anyone other than the owner. But, as most everyone knows, the loss of a coveted sentimental treasure, well, that can be a tear-jerker. “I’m known by only one name, (like Cher,)” said Fran, who has maintained the lost and found office for almost nine years at JFK’s Building 14. That’s enough time to have seen and heard it all – both the agony and the ecstasy of…

Historic is a word often associated with the rollout of new Port Authority facilities and services, whether it’s the redevelopment of LaGuardia Airport or construction of a brand-new Goethals Bridge. Yesterday, history traveled north to Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., as Norwegian Air announced it would begin a series of daily flights to Ireland and Scotland – truly putting the “international” in the airport’s name. Port Authority Executive Director Pat Foye and Ed Harrison, Stewart’s General Manager, applauded the Norwegian announcement as the start of a new era for the airport, which the Port Authority acquired in 2007. “It’s…

Bernie Wagenblast is like the Siri of public transportation in the New York/New Jersey region, sort of. Except he doesn’t live inside iPhones, he lives in Cranford, NJ. And most importantly, he never gets a snarky attitude. When Wagenblast started out as a traffic reporter on the radio, he never dreamed that one day thousands of people moving through the region’s transportation network would hear his sonorous but disembodied voice through loudspeakers inside some of the region’s major transportation infrastructure. The Port Authority (PA) was the first agency to discover Wagenblast’s cheerful voice. In fact, he still answers the Port…