Clearing Expected Today : John Wayne and L.A. Airports Closed by Fog

Orange County’s John Wayne Airport closed for three hours Friday night, stranding hundreds of passengers and delaying others, in a return of dense fog that had forced it and Los Angeles International Airport to close earlier in the day.

The fog returned late in the day to bedevil residents and motorists within 10 miles of the ocean, but strong winds blowing from the north were expected to dissipate it during the night.

John Wayne Airport was “socked in” at 8 p.m. and never reopened, according to senior operations coordinator Glenn Harvey. The airport normally shuts down at 11 p.m.

Incoming flights were diverted to Ontario and Los Angeles airports. Passengers on most outgoing flights were rebooked for flights this morning, airline employees said.

“Our RVN (runway vision range) is down to 800 feet, and nothing’s moving,” Harvey said at 8:15 p.m. The vision range, he said, varied minute to minute and peaked at 1,200 feet.

“But all the air carriers are standing around on the ramp, waiting to see if it lets up. We’re just socked in.”

Harvey counted at least five aircraft--DC10s and a 737 among them--stranded by fog on the runways. He said passengers would likely be bused to Ontario International Airport, where they could take other flights.

Earlier in the day, about a dozen flights were diverted from Los Angeles to Ontario from 6:20 to 8:30 a.m., when visibility was at its worst, according to Lee Nichols, spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Airports.

John Wayne was closed from 7 to 9 a.m., according to airport manager George Rebella. Four incoming flights circled for up to an hour, and 30 departures were delayed, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. No inbound flights were diverted from John Wayne to other airports, however.

“Things went pretty smoothly,” Rebella said. “We were lucky. We’re in the middle of a two-week lull that we always get . . . between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when we have some of our lightest traffic of the year. . . . It could have been much worse.”

No Major Accidents

The morning fog slowed commute traffic on freeways near the coast in Southern California.

The California Highway Patrol said that there were no major traffic accidents because of the fog in Orange County or the metropolitan Los Angeles area.

But near Bakersfield, the CHP said two people were killed and six injured on California 58 in at least eight traffic accidents--including a 20-vehicle pileup involving trucks and cars.

The CHP blamed speed, wet pavement and poor visibility in the fog-shrouded foothills east of Bakersfield.

Meteorologist Dan Bowman of WeatherData Inc. said that satellite photos showed a long, thin band of fog hugging the coast from Point Mugu to San Diego.

“The main reason is that we had a moist onshore flow of air last night and fog was formed as it moved over the warmer ground,” Bowman said.

But, he said, strengthening winds from a weather front moving through southern Nevada would likely wipe the fog away during the night and bring cooler temperatures.

Highs today are expected to range into the upper 60s and lower 70s along the coast, with 50s in desert areas. Lows in the Los Angeles Basin are expected to drop into the mid-40s tonight and low 40s at the Los Angeles Civic Center on Sunday.

Even without the fog, there could be traffic jams at John Wayne this weekend, when the center section of the short-term parking lot in front of the passenger terminal is being restriped to add 127 new parking spaces.

Airport officials urged travelers to allow extra time and use the long-term parking lots and shuttle buses that are available north of the terminal and on Main Street between MacArthur Boulevard and Redhill Avenue north of the San Diego Freeway.

One-third of the short-term lot in front of the terminal was painted in July, adding 27 new spaces. The south section of the lot is scheduled to be painted, beginning Jan. 7.