MIAMI INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, FLA. (WSVN) - South Florida travelers heading to the Big Apple are facing delays and cancellations hours after a deadly crash at New York’s LaGuardia airport.
Flyers who expected to head to New York City from South Florida on Monday faced delays and cancellations, as LaGuardia was closed at 2 but later reopened following the fatal collision between an Air Canada jet and fire truck on the tarmac which killed two pilots and sent 40 passengers to the hospital late Sunday night.
Travelers Olivia Basile and Fermin Seranno were heading back home after a wedding, with their flight still on schedule, Monday afternoon.
“I was just devastated for all the families affected and, obviously, it’s been such a hard time going to the airport in general, we were just scared and upset,” said Basile. “It’s like noon right now, our flight’s at eight o’clock, our flight leaves at nine o’clock, so we got here extremely, extremely early.”
Other flyers trying to get to LaGuardia from South Florida were not so lucky.
At Miami International Airport, seven departure flights to LaGuardia Airport in New York were canceled and five arrivals were canceled.
“Our flight, they texted us at like 3 a.m. that it was cancelled, and our flight was at seven,” said traveler Sydney Cooper.
“They book you to the next flight, and then you get on standby,” said traveler Josiah Hill. “Everyone already took that flight so you don’t really get your standby flight, you just kinda wait around to hope that no one shows up.”
Over at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, 11 arrivals and eight departures were canceled Monday morning.
“Honestly I don’t even think that we were thinking about our own flight status, I’ll be really honest, we were just so sad for all the people injured, lost their lives,” said Basile.
“It’s hard to pretend this stuff doesn’t affect you,” said Seranno.
However, the two had other concerns as well.
“Mostly we were worried about logistical stuff, because we were like, alright, we had already so many days planned for where we were staying,” said Seranno.
“Where we were going to stay,” added Basile.
“Where we were going to stay, what we were going to do, how long these delays are going to go on for,” said Seranno.
Passengers are advised about potential delays even with the airport reopened, as airlines deal with a significant backlog.
Travelers flying Monday are advised to check the status of their flights and avoid coming to the airport if their flights have been canceled.
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