LaGuardia Departures Shut Down When FAA Reported The FBI Lost A Fugitive Inside The Airport

by Gary Leff

A ground stop for all departures from New York LaGuardia was put in place Wednesday evening, though arrivals were allowed to continue, because the FAA believed that the FBI had “lost track of a fugitive” who was “now loose in the airport” as first reported by aviation watchdog JonNYC.

The federal agencies were coordinating to ensure that the fugitive did not escape on a flight, though presumably with access to airline reservations data they would know which flight the fugitive made it onto and with the time the plane had in the air (and with generally heavy law enforcement presence at airports) they’d be able to interdict the fugitive at their arrival gate.

The FBI hasn’t commented, but passengers have.

Given lack of official information, multiple versions of the story are floating around, some a bit less interesting than how air traffic control reported the reason for holding all departing flights.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. “Alright, you go to the bathroom. I’m going over to Annie’s to get a pretzel and we will meet right back here, okay?”

  7. What was the two hour period? I had family depart LGA right around this period and other than a 40 minute delay due to a late inbound aircraft, they left close to on-time. Wheels up ended up being around 8:45pm so I’m not sure of the accuracy of these tweets if someone was claiming a two hour delay as of 9:46pm.

  9. “The federal agencies were coordinating to ensure that the fugitive did not escape on a flight, though presumably with access to airline reservations data they would know which flight the fugitive made it onto and with the time the plane had in the air (and with generally heavy law enforcement presence at airports) they’d be able to interdict the fugitive at their arrival gate.”

    Oh c’mon Gary, this isn’t a TV show…its our government! Give them LESS credit!

  10. @Tim – LOL, thank you. But, to be honest, Trump is so big and old and fat that the only way he could “get lost” is if the Michelin Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Jabba the Hut, Homer Simpson, Family Guy Peter Griffin, Winnie the Pooh, Yogi Bear, Fred Flintstone, Fat Albert, Wimpy and Bluto (of Popeye the Sailor Man), the Penguin (of Batman), the Blob (of X-Men), Peter Potamus and Garfield all showed up at the exact same time with their golf clubs and a bunch of boot-lickers and Donnie the D—bag got lost in the shuffle.

  11. WHY is it so freakin’ funny to think of the FBI losing a fugitive at the airport? I mean, how hard could it be to keep an eye on ONE human being if that’s your only job? I’m sure the pax sitting around for hours didn’t think it was so funny.

  13. I was on a 3pm LGA-DFW yesterday. We were just about to pull onto RWY 4 to depart. Then we just sat there. An hour went by, the tower changed takeoff/landing direction and we finally departed late.

    Glad I was out of the terminal when this all went down. There was a line of planes awaiting takeoff longer than I’ve seen in a while.

  14. @Koggerj: Always an insult. Can’t win a discussion of the issues so resort to personal ad-hominem insults. Just like your hero, the documented lying, corrupt, amoral, socio-pathic, stupid, nasty, fat, insurrectionist, serial sexually abusing, serial wife cheating, 2 popular vote losing – Donnie the D—bag. And just like him, almost everything you write is a perfect example of projection; invariably much more applicable to you (and him) than the person(s) it’s directed to. Only a deplorable nasty amoral worthless waste of oxygen and excuse for a human being, like you and him, would tell someone to kill themselves. Please crawl back under whatever rock you crawled out from and keep your Chump Fool posts to yourself.

  15. Why exactly would the FBI lose a fugitive? The US Marshals handle fugitive recapture AND prison transport. The only people the FBI can lose are suspects with arrest warrants, AKA innocent people. This story is BS.

  16. Gary: I understand you’ve chosen NOT to edit or delete or moderate the Comments section of your blog. But just like Twitter and other Social Media there should be a line in the sand and that line in the sand should most definitely exclude (from Comments) a serial nasty insulting commentator like @Koggerj.

    (The Constitution’s Grandfather, almost as wise as Gary’s grandfather; “Better than a hole in the head, as my grandfather used to say!”)

  17. @The Constitution’s Grandfather – I take a very light hand in the comments but have removed several from @Koggerj, though not necessarily in real time as I am often in meetings for my day job

  18. Cant keep track of a fugitive because they’re too busy at Trump’s home sniffing Hunter’s underwear…

  19. Gary, re “…have removed…”, outstanding. On behalf of ALL your civil rational mature readers THANK YOU. Completely appropriate. You’ve restored my, and perhaps other’s, faith and motivation to visit your blog. (The Constitution’s Grandfather, might possibly be the same as Gary’s grandfather :-).)

  20. Gary: Oh yeah, almost forgot, as long as I seem to have your attention, even if momentarily, if you could now stop hawking and shilling credit cards SO OFTEN, this would be the perfect miles, points and travel blog.

  21. Gary, oh yeah, almost forgot, re “…have removed…”, outstanding. Undoubtedly your wise Grandpa would be PROUD of you.

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