Earlier today there was a small fire at New York JFK’s eleven gate terminal 1 which caused an electrical panel to fail. It closed down the terminal. Some flights operated from other terminals at the airport, while others cancelled. And inbound flights even turned around.
ITA Airways turned back from Milan. Ethiopian’s flight from Frankfurt stopped in Boston. EgyptAir went to Washington Dulles. Perhaps the most regretful was Air New Zealand flight 2 non-stop from Auckland – which made a 16 hour flight to nowhere – landing back where it started. While the pilots argued with their company to press on.
from https://t.co/QQeG7R8LkJ — Air NZ just landed!!!! pic.twitter.com/mOYE5CdZLM
— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) February 16, 2023
As aviation watchdog JonNYC shares, the pilots of Air New Zealand flight 2 argued valiantly with their company to push on.
.. we cant really say is why– or if it was just knee-jerk by NZ management or whatever.
The pilots of NZ2 pushed to continue on, to no avail: pic.twitter.com/RUQpOJJmz4
— 🇺🇦 JonNYC 🇺🇦 (@xJonNYC) February 16, 2023
A number of things go into a decision about whether to head back to base or divert to an alternate airport. EgyptAir, for instance, chose to fly on to an airport where they already have an operation in place. The Air New Zealand flight was already halfway across the Pacific. And the pilots tried to come up with arguments to bring their passengers to the United States and simply land somewhere else.
The Star Alliance member doesn’t have an operation at Newark. Although Star partner United has a hub there, making it all the way to the New York area airport might have been challenging. But the pilots thought Houston would be a good spot. After all, Air New Zealand serves Houston and United has plenty of onward flights. They even argued they’d be able to continue the journey to New York themselves after a stop, once the airport re-opened.
EWR has a ground stop for all non-scheduled flights specifically so that flights from JFK cannot divert there unless a reservation has been made.
JFK has a ground stop for Terminal 1 airlines.
As hard as it is for the pilots and others to accept NYC does not have any more space.
If they diverted to an alternate airport, they would likely end up flying the plane empty back to their home country – plus paying another airline to carry the passengers on to NYC.
This is a disaster and there is talk that the Terminal 1 closure might last for up to a couple days.
I would imagine all of the non-T1 airlines at JFK are being asked to accommodate other airlines but it is a given that flights cannot all operate at the times they originally did.
And then there are labor agreements that might specify who can ground handle.
This isn’t an easy fix and it likely is just the people at headquarters for each airline that has considered all aspects.
The only bright spot is that flights to Germany are not operating tonight so there are a few empty gates and the same will be true coming back to the US tomorrow.
Given this is a holiday weekend in the US, flights were already packed.
Let’s see what Major Pete does to solve this problem or when the Port Authority gets hauled before Congress
Notam does indicate planes destined for Terminal 1 need a reservation for the next 2 days without arrangements being made:
Q) KZNY/QFALC/IV/NBO /A /000/999/4038N07347W
A) KJFK
B) 23/02/16 21:28 C) 23/02/18 21:30
E) JFK AD AP CLSD TO TERMINAL 1 ACFT EXC 24HR PPR 917-488-5846
What about SWF (Stewart International Airport)?
It’s about 75 miles north/northwest of Manhattan & is operated by the Port Authority of NY/NJ, the same entity that operates JFK, LGA & EWR.
Its longest runway is more than capable of handling jumbo jets (Boeing 747s & Airbus A380s have diverted there) & it has US Customs & Immigration facilities.
Then just need to charter buses to complete the journey to NYC, about 90-100 mins away, or if need be, JFK, about 2.5 hours away.
Just wondering.
ANZ will soon cancel this service for good. It has had so many operational issues since it launched.
Sounds like the GLORIOUS JFK bet didn’t turn out to be as reliable and solid as everyone else thought it would be now didn’t it?? It sucks to see that airlines that have absolutely NO JFK exposure are actually doing great, have no issues whatsoever…
SWF has the runways to handle just about anything. This is a relatively small international terminal with limited gate capability. Maybe one day.
JFK Terminal 1 is slated for demolition.
Lufthansa has canceled almost all of its flights for Friday due to a strike in Germany. I would think the demand on terminal 1 is reduced.
Whatever the reason behind the decision, ya gotta tip your hat to the dedication of the pilots (and I suspect the rest of the crew) to get their passengers where they needed to go — even if it was inconvenient/extra work for them. Well done !
Lets not forget about the wasted fuel and passengers wasted timevand inconvience ..welcome to big corporate stupidity..its all about the buck ..pmus they still have tovrefind all tickets and sirt out their passengers issues back at home base
NZ pilots should have hijacked the plane!
As far as the first comment, I once flew on a TWA flight in the 1980’s from FRA to JFK that stopped in EWR due to low fuel and ATC.
@DanG,
I was referencing the Air New Zealand flight for the SWF diversion.
However, if executed with some spacing between arrivals, perhaps a few other flights could’ve been diverted to SWF.
Obviously, not ideal – but still much closer to JFK than other airports such as BOS or IAD.
“ Ethiopian’s flight from Frankfurt stopped in Boston” huh? Ethiopian doesn’t fly Fra-jfk
@ladyolives
Has it? I’m curious.
@Tim Dunn is correct, JFK doesn’t have any more space, that’s reality.
Furthermore, when the power goes out in T1 because JFK is a dump and the Port Authority is too busy calculating their pensions, this is the consequence.
Kind of like how the FAA shutdown was due to the software being updated to replace the word “man” in the software… I hope it was worth it.
When the Secretary of Transportation is too busy crying over racist roads, equity, or whatever the garbage of the day is, maybe they can make the JFK inconvenience more equitable by shutting down Teterboro and HPN for a day simply for the sake of equity.
All of this is a taste of what a 3rd world country is like. Get use to it.
“What about SWF (Stewart International Airport)?”
Unlike emergency diversions where the priority is to get to the ground as quickly as possible, a number of factors could come into play with diversions for operational reasons. A best guess is that SWF is not a company approved (what’s know as ‘ops specs’) diversion airport.
On the surface, SWF is more than adequate from an aircraft & field performance perspective. However, many carriers will not consider simply due to not having a physical presence at that airport. No staff? – not eligible to receive operational diversions.
Another factor – Even if SWF is an approved ops specs diversion point, consideration will have to be given to the fact that the diversions are international arrivals. Though SWF has the facilities, it may be a matter of logistics during a given period (i.e., does CBP’s New York Port district (as in U.S. Customs’, not PANYNJ) have the available staffing for an extended road trip to SWF?)
With regard to T-1 CBP staff affected by the closure, likely that staff was reassigned to other JFK FIS facilities due to the added volume of the T-1 arrivals processed at other terminals.
@aaway There’s already a customs facility at SWF. It has international flights. Granted, I’m sure it would be far understaffed to handle all of the JFK T1 flights, but Norse actually did divert its flight from LGW to SWF. It also has 2 more LGW-JFK flights on the way right now, which I would assume are also planning to divert to SWF, since JFK T1 is still closed. Apparently it’s just bussing pax back and forth to JFK. Not ideal, but sure beats being stuck on a different continent.
@Jared. You must read at the comprehension of a 5th grader. The FAA issue was NOT due to the change of the term Man to Mission in the software. FOX and others complaints about this was that money and time were spent on areas like this instead of focusing on overhauling the entire antiquated software that is 30 years old. Which, to a point, is somewhat valid. But to allude or, in your case directly say, that this system failure was a result of the change from the word MAN is pretty laughable.
Keep in mind, this software dates to the Clinton Administration. There have been a lot of Transportation Secretary’s in that time, including Elaine Chao, who knew very well that it was running on fumes. I’m not giving a free pass to Mayor Pete, something needs to be done, but if blame instead of solutions are your main goal it is neither constructive or accurate.
@vbscript2: Speculative reply – Norse had planned to establish SWF as a gateway. Much of that preparatory work is likely still in place since Norse has said publicly that SWF service is still tabled for a date TBD.
Another factor that also makes SWF suitable for Norse diversions….many (if not all) of the Norse B787 fleet are former Norwegian Airlines aircraft. There would be familiarity with the aircraft type at SWF.
@Stuart
You don’t work on software that the FAA uses; so please spare me your childish insults about reading comprehension and sit down.
The software update was the source of the issue. I forgot more about FAA software then you’ll ever know.
@ Jared. Not shooting the messenger but please check the then/than usage.
BTW, I agree with your third world comment.
@Jared If so, please tell me your credentials and how you work on FAA Software? Otherwise, I assume everyone on the Internet who says they’re a genius is really just a frog.
No one, with any credentials or any experience with this software cited in numerous sources, has shown that the software update WAS SPECIFICALLY due to the change of the term Man to Mission. The argument from even Fox etc is simply that instead of spending time on those other updates they should have been spending time on the entire system to keep it from crashing. Which, I actually agree with. Could that word change been PART of the update? Of course, but you are alluding to the idea that it was the SOLE cause and reason. That is hogwash.
I’ll await your name and title within the FAA software field, as well as your documentation that this was the only reason for the software update and subsequent issue.
@Stuart
I owe you nothing and you’ve already proven you don’t ask questions in good faith. You’re not entitled to a response and your conclusions or assumptions are of no value.
Enjoy JFK, it’s like Motel 6, where they leave the lights off instead.
From what I’ve read, they could have certainly sent the plane elsewhere in the US but decided not to because it would knock the plane off schedule and cause abnormalities in its normal route. Which I in no way consider a valid excuse. 16 hours to go nowhere? The execs who made that call ought to be ashamed, or publicly shamed at least. Prioritizing money over doing what they can for pax is not okay. Hope someone gets fired if only for the bad press this gave them.
Norse AW actually was approved for service to/from SWF back in early 2022 before canceling plans and deciding to use JFK Instead. SWF has I believe the second longest runway in the country, and was actually approved as an optional airport for the space shuttle. It has customs in place, and is only a 75 to 90 minute bus ride to Manhattan.