Washington, Nov 14 (IANS) At New York’s Kennedy Airport, Riley Alexis Holmes had hoped to fly to Oregon in time for her brother’s musical closing night. Instead, after nearly two hours of delay, her flight was cancelled.
“I called my mom and cried, and I’m just like sitting here waiting for information,” the 24-year-old told Business Insider.
Across the country, a nationwide halt on departures disrupted family plans, work journeys and sporting trips after a communications failure affected US air traffic operations on Friday (local time).
At Newark, a passenger identified as Jose was trying to reach Toronto for work. He told CNN he had bought his ticket after the ground stop began. CNN did not identify his surname or airline.
“This already happened and they sold it to me anyways,” he told the network.
Another traveller at Kennedy, Kieran Cullen, was returning to Jacksonville after an overseas deployment. He described repeated short delays before his flight was cancelled, Business Insider reported. His group planned to stay in New Jersey and hoped to travel on Sunday.
In Florida, Gainesville Regional Airport ordered pizza for about 80 stranded passengers, airport spokeswoman Erin Porter told The Gainesville Sun.
The disruption also reached college sports. Washington’s football team returned to campus after its flight was halted. “It’s a 30-hour drive,” official Jeff Bechthold told The Washington Post.
CNN reported later Friday that the Federal Aviation Administration had lifted the nationwide ground stop. Even when departures resume, passengers can still face delays or cancellations as airlines reposition aircraft and crews.
Earlier, an FAA operations plan issued at 7:37 p.m. Eastern said the ground stop remained in effect across a large portion of the country, although some coastal facilities had begun releasing international departures.
Air India warned of possible disruption to flights to and from the United States and asked passengers to check their flight status before travelling to the airport.
A ground stop holds aircraft at their departure airports rather than ordering every aircraft already airborne to land immediately. The FAA said inbound international flights would be managed individually.
–IANS
lkj/sd/
