The agency that oversees airports in the New York Metropolitan area has agreed to pay $3.5M in fines and the creation of a separate airport firefighting unit outside of police department control.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey faced fines from the Federal Aviation Administration for ailing to show that officers assigned to fight fires were adequately trained, according to a report on NJ.com (http://bit.ly/16Mn85G).
Crash response and firefighting at Newark Liberty, John F. Kennedy International, and LaGuardia airports were handled by specially trained Port Authority police officers who had been assigned to firefighting duties. The arrangement is unique among the nation’s major airports, which typically use their own fire brigades or rely on municipal fire departments.
The situation came to a head when the agency was found in violation of federal record-keeping rules regarding firefighter certification records.
Read additional details about the situation at http://bit.ly/16Mn85G.
