>> cnn's pete muntean is at reagan national airport outside washington, d.c.ked in with you last hour and how is it now, better? worse? >> take a look at this video from earlier at the peak of things and this is not a pleasing view for the passengers here at 7:00 a.m. >> is that the baggage line? what is that? >> that's the line for tsa the north checkpoint at terminal 2 and the good news is it was only 25 minutes to get through the standard line here that is under the tsa's guarantee of 30 minutes. so they are keeping things moving. the issue is really not getting to your gate though it is really what happens after and weather continues to be a huge factor. here are the latest numbers from flight aware. we've seen 1300 delays so far today. after 5200 yesterday, airlines still in recovery mode and the faa says low cloud ceilings, this storm could still have a pretty big impact. we saw a growthund stop going t new york's laguardia and departure delays and flights held on the ramp at fort lauderdale and orlando and also george bush intercontinental airport just

let's go to pete muntean who is live for us at reagan national. what are you learning about the buffalo airport? >> reporter: we're hearing things change by the moment both locally, near the incident site and nationally. we heard from the faa that the buffalo niagara falls international airport is now closed to all international arriving and departing flights. this just crossed from the faa. no time when they posted this about when this would expire. we have also heard from transportation secretary pete buttigieg. he's been briefed about this, he says, also spoken with his canadian counterpart about this dynamic situation. we're learning that also at the buffalo airport from the transportation authority which runs it that cars coming into the airport are being screened as well as the passengers who are going through security and so they're trying to get the word out for passengers leaving the airport today on a huge holiday travel day to try and factor in some extra time because of that. the tsa says it's already in a heightened state of security

pete muntean reporting. kate?ing up for us, a second blast at the refugee camp in northern gaza, one day after an idf strike hit the same area. the new reportings coming in. we'll bring it to you.

. >> cnn's pete muntean has more on the turkey trek to see family and friends. >> reporter: here is thed news. a government shutdown was averted which means air traffic controllers and tsa officers will be working with pay. no impact on travel there. the bad news is that this thanksgiving travel rush is going to be busy. tsa says the rush has actually already started. they're expecting to screen about 30 million people through airports nationwide through the tuesday after thanksgiving. the tuesday before thanksgiving, the 21st, 2.6 million people expected at airports. the sunday after thanksgiving, 2.9 million people at airports nationwide, making it the biggest day ever for air travel. aaa expects 55 million people will travel 50 miles or more. that's a 2% increase over last year, making it the third biggest thanksgiving travel rush since 2000. airlines say there's a trend. they say there is longer demand that is less concentrated. aaa's spokesperson said schedules have changed everything. >> people are leaving on tuesday, on monday and also maybe coming back the monday after thanksgiv

pete muntean over at reagan national airport for us.nk you very much, pete. >>> despite in travel delays, weather disruptions have been easing in the united states. i want to the go to our meteorologist chad myers. he's over at the cnn weather center for us. chad, how is it looking? >> compared to the rain we had in the northeast yesterday and we've still got all of the planes other than 70 of them somewhere where they were supposed to be, today is a much better day. i widened the view and everything looks great across the united states and that's good news, wolf, because there are 6,700 planes on this map currently in the air. this is give your air traffic controller and pilot a thank you today because -- wow, look at that. every time i look at that i am just amazed that they get where they belong. we will see good weather for tomorrow, as well, if you're going to the macy's day parade, 52, somewhere around well and the winds will be 10 to 15, and if you're flying home on the week end you might see some snow in the rockies, but if you'

let me turn to cnn's aviation correspondent pete muntean.t to remind everyone, we don't know that's going to happen. but let's just take us there. a what would it look like? >> it would be chaos on top of the grounds. so the tsa agents, they are expected to still report to work, although not get paid if a government shutdown comes to pass. now remember, during the longest shoup ever in 2018 into 2019, it only took about ten air traffic controllers staying home to clear the log jam and get a funding bill passed. so this can have some significant impacts on travel and the impact of travel can also have an impact on top. we'll see if this plays out. it really comes during a huge thanksgiving travel season that is the forecast from a airlines, from aaa and the federal government. the tsa just said that the sunday after thanksgiving will likely be the busiest day for air travel ever. when you think about each day, the two days prior, 2.6 million expected on tuesday. 2.7 million people expected at airports on wednesday, the day before thanksgiving

cnn's pete muntean has the latest. >> reporter: from slam traffic on the 405 in l.a.aking airport security lines in d.c., the thanksgiving travel rush is at a jam-packed peak. >> this is crazy. i thought it would be like this, so i am three hours in advance for my flight. >> reporter: the tsa says it will screen 2.7 million passengers at airports on wednesday making it the biggest day for air travel leading up to the holiday. heavy clouds and congestion caused the faa to slow the pace of flights at new york's laguardia and jfk, as well as houston, fort lauderdale and orlando. 5500 flights in the u.s. were delayed on tuesday, as cold wind and rain pummeled east coast airports. >> the weather always is the key. we've been working with the faa to adjust routes, move things around. >> reporter: from its station operation center at washington dallas, united airlines has a team of 50 monitoring weathers, flight connections and even bags. >> we will move 6 million customers this holiday season, we expect to be able to do that reliably. >> reporter: on the roads, aaa says wed

pete muntean, cnn, and i began n reagan national airport. >>> and traditional farming 34e67 methods are not enough to meet the food demand. but a team is working to train tiny drones to help revolution al alize the industry. eleni giokos has more. >> reporter: at this indoor garden in abu dhabi, they are growing fruit trees in all over the world. it is a laboratory for a glip of scientists from the nearby technology institute who are conducting research into the use of nana drones in agricultural. >> this is it. i'm very excited about it. this is a nano drone, one that we are working on in our lab. it has a processor and camera and we can build our software and make it fly autonomously. >> reporter: using these tiny flying computers, these scientists are training it to perform several tasks. >> what we're trying to achieve here is to make the environmental monitoring and the plant monitoring autonomous and more smart. what we do, we take these tiny drones in the size of the hand and we let them fly around so that they can measure any point, any height, any angle, any type of environment

cnn's pete muntean reports the federal government is on alert about these incidents and the nefarious purposes that could be tied to them. >> the showstopper at last thursday's baltimore ravens game was not a play but a drone halting the action at m&t bank stadium. >> we saw them up there, drones. that's a first. >> reporter: the department of homeland security fears it won't be the last. warning the threat goes beyond just hobbyists. >> a range of adversaries are using drones to advance their nefarious purposes. >> just last year, the justice department said there's a very significant threat of a drone attack on a mass gathering on this country, warning it is only a matter of time. congress has authorized dhs's counter drone authorities but only until january. >> if the department of homeland security and our partners do not get an expansion, that will lead americans more vulnerable to harm from drones. >> reporter: incidents are making headlines almost daily. in may, police in ohio charged three men with using drones to driver drugs to prisoners, a suspected drown at london's gatwic

let's bring in pete muntean and chad myers in the weather center. chad, you first.t should those of us going away expect? >> for today and tomorrow, a wet commute for shore. heading to new england, a white commute. new england, you want that because that is natural snow that you will be skiing in this weekend. it is already snowing in the catskills but ponding on the roadways from very heavy rainfall. we had five tornadoes on the ground yesterday that we know of right now. we don't have any for today and not expecting any but the forecast is for the low to head up the east coast and maybe slow down especially the road travel without a doubt. flight radar 24 has so many planes on this map. thousands and thousands of planes from the east coast to the west coast going all different directions and our pete muntean is going to tell us how this is doing. >> reporter: yeah, you know, chad, the cancellations and delays keep going up as the day goes on, and the faa just imposed a ground delay for all the flights leaving charlotte, a huge hub for american airlines, the averag

cnn's pete muntean takes a look at the numbers. >> reporter: here is the good news, a government shutdownwas averted which means air traffic controllers and tsa officers will be working with pay, no impact on travel there. but the bad news is that the thanksgiving travel rush is going to be busy. tsa says the rush has actually already started. it began on friday. and they're expecting to screen about 30 million people through airports nationwide through the tuesday after thanksgiving. the tuesday before thanksgiving, the 21st, 2.6 manage expected at airports, wednesday before, 2.7 million people. the sunday after thanksgiving, 2.9 million people at airports nationwide. that would make it the biggest day ever for air travel. but aaa expects 55 million people will travel 50 miles oar more. that's a 2% increase over last year, making it the third biggest thanksgiving travel since 2000. but airline says there's a trend here, longer demand that is less concentrated. and aaa spokesperson asa diaz said long work schedules have changed everything. >> the reality is, many people are leaving on tue

pete muntean has those details. >> reporter: the showstopper at last thursday's baltimore ravens game was not a play but a drone halting the action at m and t bank stadium twice. >> we saw them up there. that's a first. >> reporter: and department of homeland security fears it won't be the last warning the threat goes beyond just hobbyists. >> a range of adversaries are using drones to advance their nefarious purposes. >> reporter: just last year the justice department says there is a very significant threat of a drone attack on a mass gathering in this country, warning that it is only a matter of time. congress has authorized dhs' counter drone authorities, but only until january. >> if the department of homeland security and our partners do not get an expansion, that will leave americans more vulnerable to harm from drones. >> reporter: incidents are making headlines almost daily. in may, police in ohio charged three men with using drones to deliver drugs to prisoners. a suspected drone at london's gatwick airport caused flights to stop for hours. and delays at pittsburgh's airport

. >>> i want to turn to pete muntean who is tracking how this is impacting holiday travel. how are airports responding to this? >> reporter: as we're going, into one of the busiest pre-holiday travel days of this thanksgiving rush, we're hearing this just now from the faa. that the buffalo, nyaugust raw airport is clowed because it is a huge port of entry for private flights that come in from canada and into the u.s. a third busiest airport in the state of new york. they had 5,000 flights last month, 2 million passengers a year. we're also hearing this from the authority that oversees that airport. they say their screening cars in addition to passengers. that are coming into the airport and they're trying to get the word out on this huge holiday travel day. for passengers to factor in some extra time into their trips, flights domestically are still arrived and departing. but the tsa said it is in a heig heightened state of security posture, something that it has been in due to the situation in israel. and i spoke to tsa administrator about this just the other day and he sai

cnn's pete muntean is at reagan national airport outside of washington for us. at are you hearing about all of this right now? >> well, you know, right now, kate, we're looking at an airport that is pretty much at capacity. we are through the first part of the morning rush at reagan national airport and tsa tells me the airport is designed to handle 40,000 people in total on any one given day and we are going to get right up to that limit. the issue is not getting through security, but what happens after. the weather is having a big impact. here are the latest numbers of flight aware where we hit 1,000 delays nationwide today after we saw 5200 yesterday. airlines are rateight you in in recovery mode getting people to where they need to go. the anticipation from tsa, 2.7 million passing through security at america's airports today. the big thing that the tsa is trying to underscore is not to add to any of the delays if you can help it and be your game going through security. the line here at some points for standard screening has gone up to about 25 minutes under

. >> pete muntean at dulles international airport, thank you so much. >>> if you ever miss an episode of "the lead," you can listen to the show wherever you get your podcast. our coverage continues now in "the situation room." >>> happening now, new hope for foez evacuated for those evacuated from al shifa hospital after releasing video from a tunnel shaft on the hospital grounds. also tonight an appeals court signals it may restore donald trump's gag order in the federal election subversion case but loosen some restrictions. we'll tell you why the former president took the green light for some public attacks on special counsel jack smith. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm pamela brown. you're in "the situation room." we begin this hour in israel. the families of hostages held by hamas just made an urgent appeal to the netanyahu government, pushing for action to bring their relatives homes. cnn's nic robertson is following all the new developments from his position overlooking gaza. nic, what is the latest? >> reporter: th

pete muntean following this for us. lines building up at reagan national and chicago o'hare. pete, let's start but. >> reporter: you know, we could see ground stops here at reagan national today the faa warns down to palm beach and some major hubs, including atlanta and charlotte. the faa anticipating that the number of flights today will be very big, one of the biggest before the holiday. 48,000 flights scheduled today. 49,000 tomorrow. the tsa numbers have already been huge and this holiday really got off to an early start w which is good news especially considering that the storm is coming in on the east coast. the tsa screened 2.6 million people at airports nationwide on sunday. 2.7 million people at airports nationwide on friday. that's pushing up pretty close to the all-time tsa record of 2.9 million people. i spoke to the tsa administrator. he said the interesting thing happening now is this rush is getting longer and people are leaving earlier. >> normally, for us we count about ten days for the thanksgiving travel period. this year we paid it 12 for that reason. peopl

pete muntean is here with more on what i think we could only describe as a bizarre incident. this is really weird. >> really bizarre. and we're learning more about this all of the time and getting knew details even though this happened back in august of 2022. what is really interesting here is that we're learning about this from a department of transportation office of inspector general report and the man at the center, a first officer by the name of jonathan dunn and a utah grand jury handed down these charges just now, essentially saying that dunn tried to interfere with the flight crew and authorized to carr carry a gun on board and threatened the captain sitting next to him by showing him the gun. he said they could be shot multiple times if the captain diverted flight. there was clearly a disagreement in the federal court charges that essentially lay out that there was this disagreement about a medical emergency in the back of the airplane and dunn wanted to get someplace and this is what took place. so what is also really interesting about this, is that we're learning a

pete muntean is joining us now. the ntsb opened seven investigations since january.w what's behind these incidents in. >> the head of the national transportation safety board is about to say this. there is simply too much strain on the air transportation system. it's an urgent warning. it's going to be gangbusters thanksgiving travel season, likely the busiest in the skies ever. today's hearing especially timely. the subject, these close calls that it have been happening coast to coast, known as runway incursions. the latest just two weeks in houston. in that case, two private jets actually collided. the ntsb just released the air traffic control transcripts. the tower told the crew of a hawker jet to line up and wait for take yawp. the pilots acknowledge being told to wait. investigators say they took off anyway. that set up a collision course with another jet landing on an intersecting runway. thankfully, nobody hurt. just damage. you see it there. truly seconds from disaster here. today senator cantwell of washington will try to drill down on the common cause of t

pete muntean is camped out at reagan national art. i airport. and there is a large crowd hint you. >> reporter: this is an airport at capacity. this is the 7:00 a.m. rush. airport can handle typically about 40,000 people a day. and tsa tells me that we will get that number today right at the limit. the wait time right now to get through the standard lane here at this checkpoint, about 25 minutes. we're not really out of the woods just yet. we saw 5200 delays nationwide yesterday. it is a story playing out from coast to coast. and we will see if airlines can stick the landing. >> reporter: a crammed thanksgiving for travel is on from chicago -- >> feeling really positive. >> reporter: -- to dallas. >> they changed ourts three titour three times. >> reporter: and in l.a. gas averaging above $5 per gallon. and 49 million people will take road trips the next five days as air travel is rebounding from cold rain and wind that swept through east coast airports. when wednesday is finished, airlines have expected to 3r5i9 49,000 flights, 2.7 million peop