A day after ground stop, stranded travelers at NYC area airports await flights, or abandon plans

Weary travelers faced lingering disruptions at area airports Saturday as airlines continued to recover from Friday's nationwide ground stop, leaving passengers stranded or scrambling to salvage travel plans.

The Federal Aviation Administration grounded some 12,000 flights on Friday afternoon during a rare four-hour shutdown officials said was triggered by widespread communications failures.

At a news conference Saturday, FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford estimated the nation’s aviation system would be back to full strength by Sunday evening, but not before another day of cancellations.

Out of 41,000 flights scheduled to take off Saturday, Bedford estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 would be canceled, in part because of the challenges of getting displaced flight crews in position.

But Bedford predicted "a full recovery" by the close of business Sunday. "I do think the worst is behind us, but we still do have a significant amount of recovery work to do."

Traveler turmoil

At airports across the region, departure boards displayed a steady stream of delays and cancellations as stranded passengers told Newsday that the stoppage was upending planned vacations, birthdays, work meetings and other important moments.

At least a half-dozen flights had been canceled at Long Island MacArthur Airport, according to Islip Town spokeswoman Caroline Smith, who warned additional changes were possible and urged travelers to check directly with their airlines.

Many took refuge inside airport terminals, crowding into limited seats or lining the floors, leaning against luggage, attempting to take naps or hungering for food that didn’t drop out of a vending machine.

Mike Meketa, of Pennsylvania, spent roughly 12 hours sitting on benches outside a security checkpoint at MacArthur after his Friday evening flight home was rescheduled to 6 a.m. Saturday and then pushed to midday Sunday.

"The bad thing about these airports is they have these seats that have these armrests so you can’t lay down," he said. "So you have to try to sleep sitting up." His only nourishment had been crackers and a Gatorade from a nearby machine and he planned to spend the night in a hotel.

"I’m just going to … try to make the most of it. Get something to eat," Meketa said.

Saturday marked the second time Roy and Charlotte Anuskewicz narrowly evaded a nationwide ground stop at Islip’s airport, when their Friday afternoon flight was only delayed a few minutes.

The couple, who live in Texas, also were set to fly out of MacArthur Airport the day before the Sept. 11 attacks. That flight was canceled, and they ended up flying out of LaGuardia just hours before the World Trade Center was struck.

"The morning [of 9/11], we flew over the city. We saw the Twin Towers. And by the time we landed in Texas, it had happened," Charlotte Anuskewicz said Saturday. "Yesterday, when all the flights were down, it was like, ‘How can this be happening again?’ ”

The couple remained concerned that their connecting flights between Islip and Texas could get held up.

"We have two more stops. That’s the iffy part. We’ll see how the connections go," she said.

Dream deferred

At Kennedy Airport, Mark Vickers, of Salt Lake City had to put plans for a dream cruise to the Caribbean on hold.

Vickers, 49, slept overnight at Kennedy’s Terminal 5 after his connecting flight from his home to Fort Lauderdale got canceled.

"I was looking forward to the cruise, and now I can’t go on it," he said. He didn’t get a refund for the trip, and he plans to catch a flight back west. "I’m going back home."

After visiting New York City for the first time, a group of friends arrived at LaGuardia Airport Friday before finding out that their flight home to Monterey, Mexico, was canceled. They spent the night at the airport, citing the expensive trip and limited options elsewhere. They may not be able to leave New York until Monday.

"The city is beautiful, but this experience is terrible," Carolina Sustaita said.

Nadine Gauthier and her daughter were bracing for a long journey home to Winnipeg, Canada, from LaGuardia.

After their flight was canceled Friday, they were briefly booked to fly to Minneapolis before Winnipeg. Then, that flight was canceled due to staffing shortages.

A Greyhound bus sold out, and the earliest flight Air Canada had scheduled was on Monday, with no compensation for accommodations and a $30 meal voucher. Gauthier planned to fly to Toronto, stay overnight and then take an early morning flight home.

"It’s tough," Gauthier said. "It’s a little bit of exhaustion."

Outdated technology

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy blamed the ground stop on either a contractor doing routine maintenance at a "remote FAA location" or faulty equipment. He confirmed that officials found no evidence of a cyberattack.

Speaking at a news conference Saturday morning in Washington, D.C., Duffy said the contractor, L3Harris, was upgrading outdated copper wire to fiber-optic cable, a job he said was "pretty straightforward."

"We’re working to determine whether we had incompetence, meaning was it user error or installer error from L3Harris or did they install a faulty router," he said. "We haven’t determined what the fault was."

Duffy on Friday asked Congress for $50 billion in emergency funding to address antiquated communications infrastructure.

Gov. Kathy Hochul called for Duffy to resign Saturday, saying that problems with the nation’s aviation system "have become a pattern" under his leadership.

"Through it all, he’s been more focused on starring in his own reality show than addressing the crisis at his agency," she said of Duffy, a former television reality show contestant and congressman.

"With millions of Americans preparing to travel for the holidays, families deserve answers and confidence in the safety of our skies. Congress must launch a full investigation to determine what went wrong and ensure it never happens again," the statement said.

Though he said it would take time to untangle the impacts of the ground stop, Duffy and other officials assured that the system would be up and running in time for the approaching Thanksgiving travel season.