This I want to believe, and I can. I am dismissing the claim that FAA works 3 days a week, and the agency shuts down during the holidays. For the past 7 years on the Dreamliner program, FAA worked with us 40 hours a week, and during holidays.

Yes, it is true that the aviation manufactures shuts down for a week or two at the end of the year, and that's because in the past, Boeing has learned that production is difficult to handle when so many takes the hoilidays off, so they agreed with the Union to let everyone take the Christmas week off, but we would have to work on days like MLK, President day, Easter...and so on. We just traded federal hoilidays for a week off. It works out pretty well for us.

As for the FAA, it depends where the person is assigned. Holidays are the busiest for aviation travel, so that's where they are needed the most if such accidental event arise.

ANYWAY...I just hope that the mini-evacuation results are being wrapped up by now.