ICE detainee flight grounded at Pease for 15-plus hours due to blizzard

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees have been grounded at Portsmouth International Airport at Pease Feb. 23 for more than 15 hours due to the ongoing blizzard impacting the region.

Port City Air, the airport’s fixed-base operator, confirmed the ICE flight’s presence at Pease in a Monday afternoon statement.

“Decisions about flights into, out of, and holding at Pease are not made by Port City Air,” the company noted. “ICE-flight decisions are made by the US Department of Homeland Security. It is our legal obligation to safely service any flights into or out of the airport. Our operations remain open throughout this storm.”

FlightAware, an online plane tracker, reports the Boeing 767 came from Harlingen, Texas, after originating in Seattle earlier Sunday, Feb. 22.

Residents concerned about the condition of the detainees reached out to Portsmouth city councilors and to U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

The plane was towed to the terminal, where detainees were taken inside and fed, a source told Seacoastonline on background. It was not immediately known how many detainees were on board and the flight’s destination.

A spokesperson for Gov. Kelly Ayotte said she was aware of the situation, had been in contact with the Pease Development Authority, and was “tracking the situation.”

The Omni Air flight arrived at Portsmouth International Airport at 1 a.m. Monday, according to the Pease Development Authority. The PDA shared a statement Monday afternoon, stating agency officials were not made aware of the inbound flight until roughly 12:45 a.m., minutes before it was due to land.

“Portsmouth International Airport (PSM) was not advised that this flight was inbound, despite our proactive outreach prior to the storm to account for all airlines planning to use the airport,” PDA spokesperson Tiffany Eddy said in a statement. “Had we been informed in advance of their intent to land at PSM during the blizzard, we would have strongly advised against it and encouraged them to divert to another airport not being impacted by this severe winter storm.”

A representative of Omni Air did not disclose details about the grounded flight.

“We are a private charter company, so we cannot release classified information,” the representative said Monday afternoon. The company representative then hung up.

In September, PDA executive director Paul Brean said ICE flights at Pease had been paused after beginning to arrive in and out of Portsmouth International Airport two months prior.

But last month, two Omni Air flights stopped at Pease for refueling, according to Eddy. The airport had not been used for any ICE-related activity before that since October.

“As a federally funded airport, we see a variety of charter operators conducting technical stops for government flights,” Eddy said in a January statement.

A report of people protesting the detainee flight was called into Portsmouth police Monday afternoon, though responding officers did not make contact with anyone at the airport, said Lt. Jon Aubin.

Neither ICE nor the U.S. Department of Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for comment Monday afternoon.

This story may be updated.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald. Reporting by Ian Lenahan,