Fog Disrupts Airline Travel in Southland

A dense layer of fog hunkering down on California’s coastline hampered operations at Los Angeles International and several other airports throughout the state Thursday, forcing thousands of holiday travelers to be rerouted, delayed or grounded.

Airport and airline officials were expecting the persistent fog to cause more problems at Los Angeles International and other airports again this morning.

The National Weather Service predicted “partial clearing” of the fog this afternoon and evening.

In addition to Los Angeles, the thick soup curtailed operations Thursday morning at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field and John Wayne Airport in Orange County, and at airports in San Francisco, San Jose, Fresno, Reno and Eureka. Weather conditions at airports in Sacramento, Seattle and Medford, Ore., were described as “marginal” by a spokesman for a major carrier.

Detour Airliners

As a result, airliners bound for Los Angeles and San Diego were detoured to Ontario or Las Vegas to refuel and wait for the coastal fog to dissipate before flying on to their destinations.

Passengers on one Western Airlines flight were deplaned in Ontario and bused to San Diego.

Airport terminals were crowded with people awaiting delayed arrivals and departures, only to learn, in some cases, that the flights had been canceled.

“Instead of people getting on planes and getting away, the terminal just fills and fills,” said Ken Shipp, superintendent of operations at Los Angeles International.

If the forecast holds, more flights for Los Angeles will be funneled through Ontario, Las Vegas and other airports, airline officials said.

“It should get pretty interesting out here,” Ron Kochevar, assistant manager at Ontario International Airport, said Thursday afternoon.

Five wide-body passenger jets and four cargo flights were detoured into Ontario early Thursday. The airport handled the extra business smoothly, because it was a low-traffic period, Kochevar said.

Busing Passengers

The official said that United and other major carriers were planning Thursday night to bus passengers from Ontario to Los Angeles.

PSA, one of the largest regional carriers, which carries an average of 25,000 passengers a day, was forced to cancel several flights, company spokesman Bill Hastings said. Several other flights were diverted into airports that managed to evade the fog.

“It just messes up our routing,” he said. “Instead of a flight going to San Jose, we’ll send it to San Francisco or Oakland. (But) far better for the fog to hit the day after Christmas than the day before.”

Western Airlines diverted two Hawaii-to-Los Angeles flights to Las Vegas, and one Hawaii-to-San Diego flight to Ontario, spokeswoman Linda Dozier said. The Los Angeles-bound travelers were placed on a later flight and the San Diego travelers faced a long bus ride from Ontario.

Other Areas’ Problems

The Southern California fog bank is minor compared to low-lying clouds that have disrupted travel in the Pacific Northwest for two weeks, particularly at the Seattle-Tacoma airport. Fog in the San Joaquin Valley has troubled airline service to Sacramento and Fresno for the last week, Dozier said.

On Thursday at Los Angeles International, visibility dropped to virtually zero after the thick mist rolled in. Takeoffs and landings were restricted at the facility from 3:45 to 6:45 a.m., officials said.

At John Wayne Airport in Orange County, commercial airline departures and arrivals were delayed three hours by fog that reduced visibility to less than one-eighth of a mile. Planes usually begin departing and arriving at 7 a.m. However, the first aircraft did not leave until 10:01 a.m. and the first arrival was 15 minutes later.

Ralph Odenwald, tower chief at John Wayne Airport, said there were several non-commercial departures before 10 a.m. and at least one in-bound airliner stayed in a holding pattern over the ocean to wait for the fog to clear.

‘Wall-to-Wall People’

Orange County airport operations supervisor Curtis Porter said the terminal “was wall-to-wall people” waiting to leave or to meet incoming passengers.

AirCal responded to the fog by ferrying a passengerless plane, which had been scheduled to leave John Wayne at 7 a.m., to Ontario and then busing the passengers there, Porter said.

According to several airlines, planes headed for Orange County on short-haul flights were merely held at their departure points, rather than being diverted to another airport, such as Ontario.

Shipp and Odenwald said that while airports make the visibility readings, it is up to airlines to determine whether to land--a decision that will vary greatly depending on the particular aircraft, its navigational equipment and the proficiency of its crew.

Decisions involving departures rest mostly with the carrier, the officials said.