Passengers at LGA take delays in stride

Most passengers seem resigned that the issue is beyond their control and are waiting patiently for updates or leaving.

Mihir Mongia, 35, from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was supposed to fly out on American Airlines at 6:30 p.m. to Arkansas for a bachelor party. He heard through friends earlier this afternoon that all flights were grounded but arrived at LaGuardia Airport around 5 p.m for confirmation. His flight has been pushed to 9 p.m. but he’s giving it another hour before calling it quits and heading home.

Mongia said his thoughts initially turned to recent air crashes, “so now when people are trying to land, I hope air traffic control has got things under control. But right now, you know, who knows what's going to happen? Everything is cyber infrastructure. AI is getting so good, you can hack anything. I think problems like this will happen more often in the future.”

“But yeah, as a national concern, it's quite concerning,” Mongia said.

At MacArthur Airport, Jackie Smith, a saleswoman for an electrical manufacturing company based in Orangeburg, said her flight back to Florida was bumped from around 9:30 to some time after 10 p.m.

Smith, who was a Long Islander for 32 years before moving to Vero Beach, Florida, told Newsday she wasn’t concerned about the delay.

“I came to the airport early. My flight is only slightly delayed [by] about an hour, so I’m not terribly upset,” she said on Friday evening at Islip’s airport. “Worst case scenario, my bestie comes [and] we spend the night in Manorville and I take a flight back home tomorrow.”