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Dense Fog Blankets Parts of Southern California

Monday, November 19, 2007

LOCAL NEWS

BURBANK, Nov. 19, 2007 (KABC-TV) (KABC) -- Dense fog made things difficult for Southern Californians who were travelling through Burbank Airport Monday morning.

Wet and white, the fog settled in over Burbank Sunday night. Flights heading in were forced to divert to LAX and Ontario. Flights leaving were forced to wait it out on the ground leaving hundreds of flyers stranded.

"This one came at a very critical hour on Sunday night when all the incoming planes were coming in for the last run and they didn't make it here. So it had a kind of double whammy effect by not only influencing what was going on Sunday night, but setting the stage for no activity for several hours on Monday morning," said Burbank Airport spokesman Victor Gill.

"It has been a nightmare. I came here to get on a plane to go back to Vegas and I was told that there were no flights out. They closed everything and everybody went home," said air traveler, Beverly Rubin.

"I am kind of tired. I have been here for almost 15 hours," said air traveler Kim Young.

With the airport closed over night and part of the morning some frustrated passengers simply took in a nap and some thought about it.

Airport spokesman Victor Gill says it could of been a lot worse. "Also the word got ought pretty early and a lot of travelers did indeed make other arrangements. They went to LAX, they went to Ontario where there were no fog problems. So there weren't as many people here as there normally would of been.

As the hour closed in on 9:00 this morning the fog lifted and so did flights.

"We did not have our first departure until 9:00 a.m. this morning and it was really more towards 10:00 that the airlines started coming back and supplying seats to head out. We really crested at 11:00-11:30, when we sometimes had more planes on the ground than we had gates for them to park at," added Gill.

Frustrated on the tarmac were weary passengers like Evelyn Jackson. "I thought it was because there was no space for our plane to come in."

"When the airlines did start sending their planes back here to basically recover they came fast and furious. We would have seven or eight landings here at a time. We've only got fourteen gates here. So by definition you had to have a little bit more remote parking," said Gill.

A change in the weather is expected to completely push the fog out by Tuesday which is good news. Airport officials say that is when the holiday rush will just be starting to heat up.

In the end it is the pilots that have the final say to whether they will fly in bad weather conditions. Obviously Monday morning they felt it was simply to dangerous.

Eyewitness News reporters Leo Stallworth and John Gregory contributed to this report.

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