Chaos due to suspension of flights across the U.S.... Busy airport, return to Skyway one after another

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) suspended all flight takeoffs across the United States on Friday the 13th (local time), causing chaos at major airports ahead of the weekend.

According to the US daily Wall Street Journal (WSJ), a series of posts were posted on social media this afternoon, reporting that aircraft on the ground at the airport were returning to the boarding gate and passengers were disembarking.

It has been reported that at some airports, boarding gates and hallways are so crowded with passengers that it takes a long time for passengers to get off the planes.

Drummer John Sturino told a WSJ reporter that he had been waiting in line for 30 minutes for a refund at New York's LaGuardia Airport after a flight delay prevented him from attending a percussion event in Indianapolis.

Passengers who had checked in their baggage before their flight was canceled or delayed are also seen giving up boarding and standing in long lines to retrieve their baggage.

The suspension of flights on this day began at 3:53 p.m. Eastern Time (ET) (5:53 a.m. on the 14th, Korean time).

According to data from the flight tracking site 'FlightAware' cited by WSJ, as of 6:40 PM on the 13th (8:40 AM on the 14th, Korean time), about 3,300 U.S. flights were canceled and about 10,200 were delayed.

Airlines have begun canceling weekend flights, with about 370 Saturday flights already canceled.

As flight takeoffs were completely halted, there were a series of cases where airports were running out of room to accommodate arriving aircraft, and as a result, the number of cases where they were unable to land at their destination airport and returned to the airport they departed from or to another airport was increasing.

According to aviation data analysis company Sirium, as of 5:50 p.m. (7:50 a.m. Korean time), nearly 500 flights returned to their departure airports, and about 100 flights were diverted to other airports.

Because of this, there are concerns that weekend flight schedules will have a knock-on effect as it becomes difficult for aircraft and crews to move on time for the next flight.

It is expected that the number of cases of delivery delays from courier companies such as FedEx and UPS that use cargo flights will increase.

In the sports world, teams from the National Basketball Association (NBA), North American Ice Hockey League (NHL), and National Football League (NFL) that were trying to travel to their game schedules have been stuck, and it is unclear whether game referees will be able to arrive on time, leading to a series of situations where it is unclear whether weekend games will be played.

According to NYT, the Purdue University football team decided to travel 530km by bus to meet the away game scheduled to face the University of Iowa Hawkeyes on the 14th.