‘You can’t sleep here’: Travelers in Dallas share frustrations amid fallout from nationwide ground stop
Travelers in Dallas face delays, cancellations amid fallout from FAA ground stop
For thousands of travelers, getting home this weekend was anything but simple. While flights were on the move again Saturday, a lot of passengers were still dealing with the fallout.
DALLAS - For thousands of travelers, getting home this weekend was anything but simple. While flights were on the move again Saturday, a lot of passengers were still dealing with the fallout.
What they're saying:
For one traveler and her group of 20, that meant getting to know the DFW Airport a little more than she’d like, as they were trying to make their way back to France after the FAA issued a ground stop on Friday that lasted hours.
She’s learned the airport isn’t the best place to sleep.
"No, here you can't sleep here," Valerie said. "It's too difficult because a lot of people, a lot of noise also, and we haven't bed."
FAA ground stop aftermath cancels thousands of Saturday flights: What to know
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Saturday that air traffic operations had fully resumed after a telecommunications failure triggered Friday’s ground stop.
Thousands of cancellations
Dig deeper:
The fallout didn’t end when the FAA lifted the ground stop. By Saturday, thousands of flight cancellations were seen across the country.
"I was supposed to leave at 3 p.m. yesterday, so kept getting delayed and delayed, and then unfortunately canceled," said Emily Heath, a traveler at Love Field. "So the next rebooking was today at 4 p.m."
For Heath, a work trip to Dallas turned into an extra day away from home. After her flight on Friday was canceled, she rebooked, but her bad luck lingered.
"They actually brought me to the wrong airport, so I have to go to the DFW now," Heath said.
Hundreds of flights canceled at DFW as airlines recover from nationwide ground stop
Hundreds of flights were canceled at DFW Airport on Saturday as airlines work to recover from the nationwide ground stop issued Friday due to a "telecommunications outage."
Some travelers find gratitude
Still, there were a lot of people finding gratitude that it wasn't worse.
"We ended up leaving about two and a half hours later than we were supposed to," said Juan Ochoa, another traveler. "I mean, you had people who were on the standby list waiting, and they said they've been waiting since yesterday, stayed the night, still waiting, still hadn't been booked on a flight yet."
The FAA said a contractor's upgrade to air traffic control equipment triggered communication failures, which forced the nationwide ground stop.
For Stephen Storo, the way home looked to be a road trip.
"It definitely put a kink in plans and set us back about 12 hours or so, which is a frustration," Storo said. "But you know what, I'm glad things are back to good."
Tips if you're flying
What you can do:
As always, if you are flying out, make sure you keep an eye on your flight info, get to the airport earlier than you normally would, and make sure to pack your patience.
The Source: The information in this article was reported by Fox 4's Vania Castillo.