New York City’s LaGuardia Airport LGA issued a ground stop Sunday morning due to severe weather.
Flights arriving at the airport were halted over intense thunderstorms, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Control System Command Center.
The agency said the weather delay also impacted flights destined for Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Seattle, Washington due to weather and low ceilings – when clouds are too low for planes to fly.
As of Sunday afternoon, the ‘destination-specific’ delay for flights to Seattle was lifted.
Because of the delay of some arriving flights, departing flights are expected to be set back as well.
Arrival traffic is currently experiencing airborne delays of 15 minutes or less, per the FAA.
Travelers should check with their specific airline to see if their flights are affected by the ground stop, the agency added.
New York City ‘s LaGuardia Airport LGA issued a ground stop Sunday morning due to severe weather. (Pictured: Airplane on runway at LGA)
Because of the delay of some arriving flights, departing flights are expected to be set back as well. (Pictured: File image of LaGuardia Airport)
Daily Mail contacted the FAA and LaGuardia Airport for more information.
Travel chaos at LaGuardia comes just two weeks after all flights at New Jersey’s Newark Airport were grounded due to staffing issues.
A ground stop was briefly ordered before a ground delay was put in effect until 10.59pm on June 4, the FAA said.
The FAA’s Air Traffic Control System Command Center said due to staffing problems at the travel hub, a traffic management program has been put in place for arriving flights causing delays by an average of 27 minutes.
‘If daily or per-shift staffing levels are low, the FAA ensures safety by implementing traffic management initiatives, such as slowing the flow of aircraft into an airport,’ the FAA told Daily Mail.
Delays were assigned to departures within 1000 nautical miles of the airport and included all contiguous US departures.
Meanwhile, in May, another ground stop was ordered at Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Georgia – one of America’s busiest airports.
The FAA issued the ground stop on Mother’s Day due to an equipment outage.
The ground stop was issued for flights scheduled to leave from East Coast area airports bound for Atlanta, reported Atlanta News First.
Arrivals were slowed down due to ‘a runway equipment issue,’ and technicians worked to fix the issue.
The ground stop was lifted shortly before 12:30 p.m., and departures continued to be delayed by 20 minutes.
While flights delays have become all to common recently, near-misses and plane disasters have also brought on fear across the county.
In early May, a jet in New York was forced to abruptly abort takeoff as another was still on LaGuardia Airport’s runway.
Passengers on board Republic Airways Flight 4736 on May 6 were thrown forward in their seats as the pilot slammed on the brakes at 12.35am.
The sudden stop occurred because a United Airlines aircraft was still taxiing across the runway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.
One jolted passenger, Renee Hoffer, described the incident as ‘as hard as any car accident I’ve been in,’ after she wound up in the emergency room the next day.
Hoffer told Associated Press that she visited the emergency room with neck pain and a numb left arm the day after the plane came to an abrupt halt.
This is a breaking news story. Updates to follow.
