Air travel meltdown causes chaos after arctic storm
The eastern parts of the US and Canada froze on Saturday, with record-low temperatures brought on by a deadly winter storm disrupting air transport.
New York’s flagship airport, John F Kennedy International, descended into chaos, battling to clear a backlog of flights.
In Canada, temperatures approaching minus 50°C were forecast in northern Ontario and Quebec.
Arctic blasts and dangerously cold wind chills could make it feel as low as minus 42°C across the eastern US, with the risk of frostbite to exposed skin within 10 minutes, officials warned.
The deep freeze follows a storm forecasters dubbed a “bomb cyclone”, which has been blamed for at least 19 deaths in the US, from Texas to Wisconsin.
Thursday’s storm raked the east coast with heavy snowfall, glacial temperatures and high winds, forcing the cancellation of flights.
On Saturday, more than 3,420 flights within, into or out of the US were still delayed.
JFK airport and South Carolina’s Charleston were among the worst affected.
The port authority that runs New York airports announced flights were being limited into JFK, “including all flights scheduled to arrive into Terminal 1 for the rest of the evening”.
It said a surge in flights rescheduled after the storm, combined with severe damage to equipment, led to delays in getting planes and passengers to gates.
Tracking site Flightradar24 said at least 12 international flights had been waiting up to four hours for a gate so that passengers could leave the aircraft.
Passengers complained of being stranded on the tarmac for hours and then facing long delays in baggage claim, which made travelling, particularly for the elderly or those with babies, a misery.
“Losing patience,” tweeted passenger James Allen, who said he travelled on Virgin Atlantic and had to wait three hours before reaching the gate, then two hours in baggage claim.
“Two small children hungry, thirsty and tired with no facilities or help in baggage reclaim. Very poor.”
Several trans-Atlantic flights simply gave up and went home, including an Aeroflot flight from Moscow that turned back over Iceland.
A Norwegian Air flight from London diverted to Stewart International, 112 kilometres north of Manhattan, while a Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo diverted to Boston.
Adding to the chaos, a China Southern Airlines and Kuwait Airways jet clipped each other’s wings at JFK’s Terminal 4 late on Friday, causing damage to both aircraft but no injuries.
In New York, the national weather service reported lowest-ever high temperatures at each of its climate sites except for Central Park, with temperatures about 25°C degrees below normal.
Forecasters said below-normal temperatures were likely to continue into the early parts of this week, forecasting freezing rain from Kansas to Tennessee, with ice that could complicate road transport.
Mount Washington, New Hampshire recorded the second-coldest temperature on earth early on Saturday – minus 38°C.
In eastern Canada, which has suffered through extreme cold for two weeks, there were further flight delays and cancellations at Toronto airport, and some communities along the Quebec coast faced flooding.
“Frostbite can develop within minutes on exposed skin, especially with wind chill,” the Canadian weather service said.