U.S.

Toppled Tower Thwarts Travelers

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

April 23, 2000 / 1:46 PM EDT / CBS

The word for air travelers Sunday: Stay away from Boston's Logan Airport.

A toppled radar antenna snarled air traffic at Logan International Airport Saturday, forcing frustrated travelers to wait up to three hours for flights.

High winds disabled the antenna at about 4:15 a.m., according to Jose Juves, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs the airport. The antenna helps air traffic controllers guide incoming planes.

But that still slowed down flights.

The toppled tower

U.S. Airways revised its schedule for Sunday in anticipation of further delays at Logan. Half of U.S. Air's shuttle flights to and from New York's LaGuardia Airport were to be routed through Manchester, N.H. Some shuttle flights to Washington, D.C. were routed through T.F. Green airport near Providence.

Logan switched to a backup radar system in Nashua, N.H., Saturday. There was no danger to planes in the air, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

By Saturday afternoon, incoming flights were landing at the rate of about 24 per hour. That was up from the 16 flights per hour that were landing immediately after the radar was knocked out, but not the usual 36 per hour under rainy and windy weather conditions like those that prevailed Saturday.

Outgoing domestic flights experienced delays of two to three hours. Some airlines canceled flights in and out of Logan.

In a statement, the FAA said it "does expect significant delays due to the outage" and suggested people check a special FAA Internet Web site that provides information on delays.

The FAA also suggested that, for specific flight delay information, people check with their airlines.

The FAA expected to have a replacement antenna on the scene some time Sunday. Once the antenna arrives, technicians will immediately begin installation.

Repairs and certification of the equipment could take several days. A crane has been brought in to stabilize the radar.

Logan is the nation's ninth busiest airport with more than 500,000 operations in 1999.