Scrapping a birthday trip
Passengers wait in Terminal B at LaGuardia airport due to a nationwide ground stop due to a communication issue on Friday, November 13, 2026 in Queens. Credit: Dawn McCormick
News the flights are resuming brought little relief for Samantha Haufsk, 31, of Middle Island.
“We're talking about days of delays. I mean, there's so many canceled flights. There's hundreds of people upstairs waiting to fly out,” Haufsk said while waiting at LaGuardia.
She was supposed to be celebrating her 32nd birthday with her twin sister in Arizona this weekend but with the 4:30 p.m. flight still showing it’s taking off at 8 p.m. Friday, Haufsk and her sister decided to scrap the trip entirely.
“They didn't really say anything in the airport. I mean, if we weren't like on our phones listening to updates on the news, we would have no idea what's going on,” she said. Past the security gates, she said the scene was chaotic.
“Just everyone's frustrated. Everyone's tired. There's no place to sit. So, at this point, we just had to call the trip what it was and head home because we can't risk going.”
And as conspiracies among the public swirl about the true nature of the nationwide cancellations, she added, “We made the right decision by canceling everything and leaving. But it definitely wasn't handled good.”
Lorena Mongelli has been reporting for Newsday since 2021. Prior to that, she covered breaking news at the New York Post.
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