SEATTLE – Between the thunderstorms and lightning on Saturday night and the windy conditions, it was difficult for travelers to get to or from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
According to FlightAware, 291 flights were delayed and 47 flights departing or arriving at Sea-Tac were canceled in the last 24 hours.
Airport officials released a statement on the current situation on Sunday. It states, among other things:
“We had lightning warnings that resulted in a two-hour suspension of refueling for safety reasons between 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Typically, thunderstorms pass in 20 to 30 minutes and are then canceled, but this storm was so severe that it could not take advantage of the two hours. This caused delays for departing flights and resulted in delays for some incoming flights that had no room to move until departures were cleared. The FAA also had a ground stop for incoming flights for a period of time late in the evening to slow incoming traffic,” said Perry Cooper, senior media relations manager for SEA Airport.
Since Sunday evening, the FAA has reported delays of two and a half hours in traffic to Boston, delays of one hour and 16 minutes at New York’s JFK airport, and no departures will take place at EWR in Newark, New Jersey, until 7 p.m.
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