I was on a flight that went into holding pattern over PA today and actually ran low enough on fuel that we were diverted to JFK for a bit before being redirected back to LGA at the last minute. This was UA so I was able to listen to the communications. At one point, they said that LGA … specifically LGA … was not accepting any incoming traffic.
Anyone know anything about this? While there were rainshowers in the area, I don’t believe there was anything severe.
I fly into LGA a lot. This was the first time I’ve ever heard of LGA not accepting flights at all, while JFK was (causing holding patterns). Normally, I hear of ATC delays into the entire NE corridor … or at least into the entire NY TRACON. And it almost never gets to the point where a flight is diverted to another airport … unless there is a big snowstorm or something like that.
I was exagerrating for effect. Except for the PHL remark. For some reason, if there’s a rumor that it may get cloudy, they delay everything that moves. I think my grandmother is in charge of that tower. (She used to put a jacket on me when it was less than 90 degrees outside.)
Several years ago, I was checking in for my ORF-PHL-CLE flight home via USAir, and the ticket agent in Norfolk advised me to change to a connection in PIT instead, as rain was forecast for the Philadelphia area. Not storms or fog, but RAIN. She said she was POSITIVE that I would spend the better part of the day sitting in PHL, or circling above. She told me the PHL controllers were a bunch of pussies, more or less. Anyway, I flew to PIT, and sat there for a 3-hour (scheduled) layover in fog so thick you couldn’t even see the plane till it was AT the jetway. We took off on time, though!!
From what i’ve heard from pilots I know, PHL controllers aren’t pussies, they simply are so rediculously crazy that if anything less than severe clear happens, no one will survive!
Thier favorite move is to land on 27R and 35 using visual sep. I bet CRJ pilots refuse the visual to 35 when its raining.
Interesting…Although I hope the CRJ remark wasn’t meant to explain MY circumstance, as my flight wasn’t a CRJ. This was probably… 12-15 years ago; it was either a BAC-111 or an F-100… And the airport may have been Newport News/Williamsburg (KPHF I think). I flew in/out of both to my dad’s house in VA. But that’s all beside the point. I still watch the weather delays on The Weather Channel and CNN, and KPHL is still one of the first airports in the NE Corridor to initiate delays. Nice to know that it’s not a bunch of wussies though; just a few crazy bastards that want to stack a/c on top of each other in foul weather!
According to the ATCSCC Advisory database, LGA had ground stops between 1647Z and 1727Z for enroute volume, 1752Z and 1822Z for arrival volume, then later in the day had ground delay programs and ground stops due to weather and wind.