DENVER, Colorado — If you are planning on hiking in a national park or head to the airport to travel this weekend be prepared. Federal workers are warning that the government shutdown is starting to impact safety.

“For air traffic controllers, you only get one take,” said James Marinitti with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. “They work in a mistake-free environment where we are expected to be right 100 percent of the time.”

With 3,000 air traffic support staff being told not to come to work there are fewer safety inspectors. That can lead to delays like repairing runway lights that guide pilots to the installation of new technology that helps controllers communicate with pilots.

“Radar, preventative maintenance — these types of things that will get delayed as the shutdown continues because the workers are not there to keep the system healthy,” Marinitti said.

TSA employees are among the thousands of essential government workers required to show up without pay. Senior officials have confirmed with CNN that hundreds of TSA employees are calling out sick since the shutdown.

We reached out to the TSA at Denver International Airport about the impacts but have not heard back.

At Rocky Mountain National Park, visitors are arriving only to be disappointed.

“We are out here to visit. We see the sign and realize it’s closed. We came all the way from Vancouver, Canada, and it’s kinda disappointing,” said Stanley Marayan.

Trash cans are locked up at the park and roads are closed because there are no workers to plow them.

The National Park Service is warning visitors to use extreme caution during the shutdown because emergency services are limited. At Yosemite National Park, one death wasn’t reported for a week because of the government shutdown.

“America is great. We want to explore America, so for us, I think this is crazy they are closing the parks. Nature is beautiful here,” Marayan said.

By Taylor Dolven / Miami Herald

MIAMI — Federal aviation safety inspectors haven’t been inspecting anything for the last two weeks because of the government shutdown. Deemed nonessential workers, the inspectors say they’re anything but.

Holding signs saying, “Was your airplane properly repaired and inspected today? The FAA does not know!” at Miami International Airport on Thursday, inspectors spoke with departing airline passengers about what they say is a heightened risk of aviation accidents because of their absence.

“My job is the safety of people,” said Charles Banks, 50, a veteran who has worked as an FAA safety inspector for 15 years. “I have family flying too and I can’t protect them from here on the curb.”

Contrary to their TSA counterparts, safety inspectors have little interaction with travelers. Instead, they work behind the scenes inspecting plane repairs, reviewing pilot work, helping flight attendants with unruly passengers and investigating accidents. About 80 inspectors work at MIA and Fort Lauderdale—Hollywood International Airport, Banks said, along with a larger administrative staff. Airline companies do their own inspections and reviews, but according to the furloughed inspectors, no one is currently overseeing those companies.

“We are another layer of safety,” said Troy Tomey, 52, who has been an inspector for four years. “We’re the last check of the box. Taking us out of it, mistakes can happen.”

An FAA press release from Dec. 22 — the first day of the government shutdown — said “there is no impact to safety or FAA oversight for travelers.” Furloughed inspectors disagree. On Dec. 21, the day before the shutdown, a Korean Air cargo plane’s wing collided on the ground with a Tab cargo plane’s tail at Miami International Airport, damaging both planes. Tomey said he and his team identified damage that one of the airlines didn’t originally report to the aircraft manufacturer, which was in charge of repairing the planes.

Normally, Tomey said he would review the manufacturer’s repair report to make sure everything was fixed. But since he’s been furloughed, that hasn’t happened.

“Both companies have emailed me what they’ve done and my job is to validate what they’ve done is right,” Tomey said. “I’m 99.9 percent sure they did, but we don’t know. Now they’re back in the air flying.”

In Michigan, sheriff’s deputies have been guarding the scene of a fatal plane crash last weekend, waiting for FAA investigators to arrive. The FAA said in a statement that it is limiting investigations to “major accidents involving significant casualties and certain other accidents when failure to proceed with the investigation creates a significant risk to transportation safety.”

In addition to public safety, the personal well-being of inspectors is top of mind for Robert Guevara, legislative chairman for Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, the union that represents safety inspectors.

“We have members who live paycheck to paycheck. We have mortgages to pay. We’re just like everybody else,” he said. “Our creditors demand their bills to be paid on time. We’re worried they’re going to take a hit on their credit reports.”

Still, furloughed inspectors said they’d prefer to be working without pay like their TSA colleagues. At least then, they’d know they were doing all they could do to keep passengers safe.

Federal workers in charge of making sure citizens stay safe while flying said air travel has become more dangerous amid a government shutdown forced by President Donald Trump.

The shutdown, which began Dec. 22 after Trump demanded $5 billion for a useless border wall, has led to more than 3,000 support workers being furloughed while more than 10,000 air traffic controllers continue to work without pay, according to The Washington Post.

Furloughed safety inspectors said planes that haven’t been inspected for two weeks are still being used to transport passengers.

“We are another layer of safety,” safety inspector Troy Tomey, 52, told the Miami Herald as he protested with other furloughed workers outside Miami International Airport on Thursday. “We’re the last check of the box. Taking us out of it, mistakes can happen.”

On the day of the shutdown, union leaders with the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists warned that Congress would need to act fast to get inspectors back to work.

“Furloughing this critical workforce during the busy holiday travel season is neither in the best interest of the nation’s economy nor the oversight of the U.S. aviation system,” the union said in a statement at the time. 

Union leaders at the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) are encouraging its members to call their representatives in Congress to ask for an end to the shutdown.

“Even though air traffic controllers and traffic management coordinators remain on the job, dedicated to the safety of every flight, they don’t know when they’ll receive their next paycheck and that adds more stress to an already stressful profession,” the NATCA said in a statement. “This shutdown and the resulting furloughs are rapidly eliminating the layers of redundancy and safety on which the NATCA is built.” 

The union also said hiring and training delays have worsened among the crisis.

“This staffing crisis is negatively affecting the National Airspace System, and the shutdown almost certainly will make a bad situation worse,” NATCA President Paul Rinaldi said in a statement. “Even before the shutdown, controllers have needed to work longer and harder to make up for the staffing shortfall. Overtime in the form of six-day weeks and 10-hour days is common at many of the nation’s busiest and most short-staffed facilities including radar facilities in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas. And none of the controllers forced to work during this shutdown will see pay for their hard work to keep travelers safe until the shutdown ends. This shutdown must end now.”

Trump’s desperation for a border wall will be further hampered after Democrats took control of the House on Thursday. They have vowed not to give him any money for his wall.

• This article originally appeared on HuffPost.

Calling any year the “worst year to fly” is a bold statement. But that’s just what AirHelp, a passenger rights company, is saying about 2018.

The company says 2018 was “the worst year to fly for travelers due to overtourism, delays and poor quality of service from many airlines internationally,” adding that “an average of 2,400 U.S. travelers experienced flight disruptions every day this year.”

While weather and technical issues will always pose challenges for airlines’ punctuality and performance, AirHelp primarily blames overtourism for exacerbating those problems. “Overtourism,” of course, is simply a less charitable way of saying lots of people are traveling.

Can 2019 Be Better?

But semantics aside, that trend doesn’t look like it will subside in the coming year, meaning travelers and airlines alike should prepare for another taxing year in 2019.

The good news is that while no one can control the weather or ensure planes operate smoothly, there are steps travelers can take to mitigate these circumstances. AirHelp has some tips:

• Fly during off-peak days or times, even later at night, when airports and aircraft are less crowded.
• Leave extra time for traveling to and from the airport.
• Many travelers already do this in the era of escalating bag fees, but pack light or only use a carry-on to skip baggage claim.
• Bring chargers and extra entertainment for the airport to keep yourself (or your kids) occupied during a delay.
• Know your rights for flight disruptions to make sure you are properly compensated for any delays

Readers, do you think 2018 was the worst year for air travel ever? Or was your experience just a series of run-of-the-mill disruptions? Comment below.

More from SmarterTravel:

• When to Book Flights, According to Airfare Analysts
• Airlines Owe Travelers Millions for Disrupted Flights in 2018
• The First Face-Screening Biometric Terminal Opens in Atlanta’s Airport

DENVER, Colorado — If you are planning on hiking in a national park or head to the airport to travel this weekend be prepared. Federal workers are warning that the government shutdown is starting to impact safety.

“For air traffic controllers, you only get one take,” said James Marinitti with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. “They work in a mistake-free environment where we are expected to be right 100 percent of the time.”

With 3,000 air traffic support staff being told not to come to work there are fewer safety inspectors. That can lead to delays like repairing runway lights that guide pilots to the installation of new technology that helps controllers communicate with pilots.

“Radar, preventative maintenance — these types of things that will get delayed as the shutdown continues because the workers are not there to keep the system healthy,” Marinitti said.

TSA employees are among the thousands of essential government workers required to show up without pay. Senior officials have confirmed with CNN that hundreds of TSA employees are calling out sick since the shutdown.

We reached out to the TSA at Denver International Airport about the impacts but have not heard back.

At Rocky Mountain National Park, visitors are arriving only to be disappointed.

“We are out here to visit. We see the sign and realize it’s closed. We came all the way from Vancouver, Canada, and it’s kinda disappointing,” said Stanley Marayan.

Trash cans are locked up at the park and roads are closed because there are no workers to plow them.

The National Park Service is warning visitors to use extreme caution during the shutdown because emergency services are limited. At Yosemite National Park, one death wasn’t reported for a week because of the government shutdown.

“America is great. We want to explore America, so for us, I think this is crazy they are closing the parks. Nature is beautiful here,” Marayan said.

“This staffing crisis is negatively affecting the National Airspace System, and the shutdown almost certainly will make a bad situation worse,” NATCA President Paul Rinaldi said in a statement. “Even before the shutdown, controllers have needed to work longer and harder to make up for the staffing shortfall. Overtime in the form of six-day weeks and 10-hour days is common at many of the nation’s busiest and most short-staffed facilities including radar facilities in New York, Chicago, Atlanta, and Dallas. And none of the controllers forced to work during this shutdown will see pay for their hard work to keep travelers safe until the shutdown ends. This shutdown must end now.”