As a private jet hired by Immigration and Customs Enforcement to transport immigrant detainees landed in Louisiana, heavy smoke filled the cabin. It became increasingly hard for the 168 passengers — guards, officers, crew and undocumented immigrants — to breathe.
Some yelled for help as they choked on toxic fumes for eight minutes. But the pilot stuck to normal procedures, taxiing down the airport runway, and parking, as usual, in front of the Alexandria detention center. By the time they escaped the aircraft, many were dizzy; some were vomiting and required medical attention.
Barely a year later, that same quarter-century-old jet caught fire during a crash landing, and sent shackled passengers struggling to escape as flight attendants discovered that one of the emergency slides didn’t work.
These dangerous incidents on immigration flights — and nearly 100 more — during Barack Obama’s second term and Donald Trump’s early years in office are detailed in thousands of pages of government documents analyzed by Capital & Main. Read Full Article »