Travel nightmare across the northeast as severe weather causes hundreds of flight cancellations and delays

• Severe weather caused travel disruptions across the northeast.
• Weather disruptions are common in US air travel, often causing delays and cancellations.
• Airlines prioritize safety, learning from past incidents to avoid flying in hazardous weather.

A Delta flight from LaGuardia to Detroit turned into a quiet cheering match on Thursday — one group hoping for takeoff, the other hoping to return to the gate.

Delta flight 1122 was still being described as on time when boarding began around 12:15 p.m. But amid torrential rain and whipping winds, passengers spent around three hours slowly crawling along the airport taxiways.

Business Insider editor in chief Jamie Heller was onboard and described the scene like a "sports showdown" on the airplane.

For Heller, retreat was the better option.

"Never will I be happier to be at LaGuardia than when I deboard this aircraft," she wrote. "I already missed my connecting flight out of Detroit, so it would have meant an evening at a Detroit hotel only to try to get back to New York tomorrow."

Meanwhile, her nearby neighbor, Frank Granati from eastern Long Island, was gunning for a completed trip, even if delayed, with one goal to spend Halloween with his granddaughter, whom he called "three and a half going on thirty."

"I knew I shouldn't have texted her and said pappa bear is coming," he said when the flight's fate was uncertain.

In the end, they both got their wish. Passengers were allowed to deplane or stay on, and the aircraft eventually took off and is expected to make it to Michigan more than five hours late.

Flightaware data shows that as of 7 p.m. local time on Thursday, there were 203 cancellations (36%) and 223 delays (39%) at LaGuardia.

Delta's return to the gate is standard procedure because federal law requires airlines to move the aircraft to a safe location where passengers can deplane before the three-hour mark.

Airlines generally follow the rule, but extreme circumstances can happen — like the Delta flight that sat six hours in Savannah in 2023 because it diverted for weather, and customs staff weren't available to let passengers off.

This was just one of many flights canceled or delayed on Thursday due to severe weather. The three New York City area airports — LaGuardia, JFK, and Newark — had nearly 400 cancellations.

Another roughly 200 flights were disrupted at Orlando, with the FAA citing staffing issues. It's among the airports experiencing delays because of the government shutdown, as air traffic controllers, who are working without pay, call out and leave facilities short-staffed.

"We apologize to our customers who had a disruption today — refunds are due to anyone who wants one if a flight is canceled and they chose not to travel," a Delta spokesperson told Business Insider. They added that customers are rebooked automatically on the next best itinerary. Delta gave Heller a choice of credit or a refund.

Situations like this aren't unusual, and they're not unique to Delta

Thunderstorms in spring and summer, hurricanes in fall, snow and ice in winter — weather disruptions are part of how flying works in the US.

Weather accounts for roughly three-quarters of air traffic delays in the US, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, particularly in congested corridors like the Northeast.

And as frustrating as delays are, it's always better to miss a connection than take off into unsafe conditions. Airlines have learned that the hard way.

A flight by now-defunct Southern Airways crashed in 1977 after the pilots flew through a thunderstorm, while a Dutch airliner crashed in 1981 after it flew into a tornado.

One of the most notable cases was in 1968, when an early-age jetliner crashed after turbulence caused an in-flight structural failure. Investigators determined that the plane took off in "an area of avoidable hazardous weather" and was swept up in a severe squall line.

A similarly severe squall line was battering the Northeast on Thursday, bringing with it severe rain and winds that led the National Weather Service to issue a flash flood warning in New York.

Thursday's travel chaos wasn't a failure of the airline or the airport — it was the system working as intended after decades of lessons about not pushing into bad weather.

Pilots, dispatchers, and air traffic controllers are trained to err on the side of caution, even when it means passengers spend hours on a parked plane.

Once deplaned, the long travel day was not over for Heller. On her way home, Heller's subway was delayed.