Lost luggage, delays among Atlanta issues
Problems continue into Monday, extend to PBIA, Fort Lauderdale.
WEST PALM BEACH — Tiffany Hornback of Palm Beach Gardens made the three-hour trek from the University of Alabama to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on Sunday to catch a midday flight home. At 1 p.m., she was next in line to get food. Then the lights went out at the world’s busiest airport.
Hornback’s flight to Palm Beach International Airport was one of several either canceled or delayed Sunday and Monday when a power failure shut down the Atlanta airport, a major hub for flights to South Florida. Power didn’t return until nearly midnight.
Five hours after Hornback first arrived for her flight, Southwest Airlines brought out a cart with peanuts and a stampede of people attacked the cart, her mother, Debra Dominguez said Monday morning. Hornback, who hadn’t eaten since 8 a.m., snagged a bag that had fallen to the floor.
“‘This is what the apocalypse would look like,’” her mother recounted her saying.
The corridor in which Hornback was stranded eventually became smoky from the fire in an underground airport tunnel that prompted the power failure, Dominguez said. People were moved to a different part of the concourse and Hornback eventually got outside, Dominguez said, but it was freezing cold and Hornback’s phone had died. She sat on the concrete and cried.
The student spotted a nearby building where she charged her phone and was able to get an Uber and hotel. She was scheduled to return on a 10:30 a.m. flight Monday. Dominguez said Southwest told her daughter it doesn’t know where her luggage might be.
On Monday morning, according to status screens at PBIA, flights to Atlanta at 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. were canceled. Atlanta flights departing as early as 11:15 a.m. were listed as “on time.” Flights from Atlanta scheduled to arrive at 10:28 a.m. and 12:45 a.m. were listed as on time but a flight scheduled to arrive at 11:44 a.m. was canceled.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport reported seven Atlanta cancellations — four departures and three arrivals — as well as 14 arrival delays and four departure delays, airport spokesman Greg Meyer said. He reported 17 canceled flights and 34 delays on Sunday. Meyer was unable to say when flights at Fort Lauderdale would return to normal.
Delta Air Lines, whose main hub is at Atlanta, said at about 7:30 a.m. it had canceled 300 Monday flights already, on top of nearly 1,000 canceled Sunday.
Delta canceled nine flights in and out of PBIA Sunday and rerouted one, and canceled four PBIA flights Monday morning, airport spokeswoman Lacy Larson said. She did not have a report from Southwest. Those two were the only airlines flying between PBIA and Atlanta on Sunday and Monday, Larson said.
“Delta is working to reaccommodate customers. Those who need booking assistance are encouraged to go to the Fly Delta app or delta.com to check flight status before leaving for the airport,” the airline said in a notice. It also suggested monitoring “@ATLairport” on Twitter.
The airline said people flying to, from or though Atlanta can make a one-time change and the airline had frozen travel for unaccompanied minors, although those in transit could continue.
Delta tweeted Monday morning that it had set up a phone line to assist customers with checked bags whose travel had been disrupted. It said customers should call 888-977-1005 to arrange bag delivery.
Southwest Airlines canceled 70 Atlanta departures out of 120 on Sunday and said Monday it was at full schedule. Spokesmen couldn’t provide specifics for flights in and out of PBIA on Monday morning.
The airline said people who were scheduled to travel through Atlanta on Sunday and Monday and want to change plans can in most cases rebook with no extra fee.
James Beatty, whose connecting flight between PBIA and Pittsburgh brought him to Atlanta, described a scene similar to Dominguez.
“Some residual smoke from the fire started coming down one of the terminals and they pushed the entire terminal and all the passengers to one end of the terminals,” Beatty said, adding that passengers like himself and staff members had to assist or carry people in wheelchairs to the waiting area, which was downstairs.
Travelers waiting at PBIA said the cancellations threw their schedules into turmoil.
“It doesn’t work that they have me traveling all day tomorrow because it means I’m losing two business days,” said Krista Lowery of Jupiter, whose Delta flight to Louisville, Ky., had to change its connection to a different airport than Atlanta.
Maruschka Otto was afraid she would miss her connecting flight in Atlanta. Otto, who was traveling from South Africa, said the airport train wasn’t working Monday morning when she hurried to catch a flight to PBIA. She said the walk between terminals “felt like hours.”
Other customers said they were also inconvenienced, but an airline worker tried to make her delay less of an ordeal.
“The agent has been wonderful. She made sure we had food vouchers. A place to stay. Gave us alternate plans. Let us decide which way we wanted to go,” said Carol Fosson, who had been vacationing on Singer Island. “It’s as pleasurable as this experience could be.”