5 Fascinating Facts About The Time An Airbus A380 Diverted To New York Stewart Airport

Extreme weather events, such as heavy winter snowstorms, often wreak havoc on air transportation systems and lead to cross-country delays, stranding passengers far from their destinations. Occasionally, however, extreme weather events lead to unique circumstances, some of which create headline news stories and bring aircraft to places that one might never usually see them.

Something similar occurred in January 2018 when winter snowstorms battered the New York City area, causing a chain reaction of delays and cancellations across the region. Some aircraft were forced to divert due to severe winds and unpredictable conditions that made landing at their original destinations, like New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), unfeasible.

Such an incident occurred to a Singapore Airlines Airbus A380, which had recently completed a transatlantic crossing from Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and was forced to divert away from JFK and towards the rather small and unremarkable New York Stewart International Airport (SWF). In this article, we will take a deeper look at this unique time in which the world’s largest passenger aircraft diverted to an airport that sees less than 150,000 annual passengers.

1

An otherwise-uneventful crossing

Flight number: SQ 26

On the afternoon of 4 January 2018, Singapore Airlines Flight 26, a scheduled flight that originated at Singapore Changi International Airport (SIN) and was slated to arrive at JFK with a stop in Frankfurt, encountered severe weather in the New York Area. Amid heavy winds, the pilots and air traffic control decided to perform a diversion to New York Stewart Airport.

While the facility sees extremely limited passenger traffic from just a handful of airlines, Stewart Airport maintains an extensive 11,800-foot runway, making it ideal for diversions of this kind. Even the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, which has more than double the wingspan of the Boeing 737s that the airline sees, has no trouble touching down at the facility, according to Today Online.

2

A unique deplaning process

Passengers were unable to deplane via jetbridge

The aircraft touched down at Stewart Airport shortly after midday at 12:23 PM local time, but passengers were not immediately able to disembark. As air traffic controllers and pilots waited to see if weather conditions would allow for the aircraft to make its way over to JFK, passengers were left stranded on the apron for quite some time.

According to reports from CNBC, they were only seen disembarking at around 5 PM local time, more than four hours after their arrival at the facility. Due to the fact that the Airbus A380 was far too tall for the airport’s gates, passengers were unable to deplane traditionally.

Rather, the facility brought out airstairs, which allowed passengers to deplane. However, they were unfortunately forced to walk out into the wintery conditions before entering the terminal.

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3

Transportation by bus

Passengers did not arrive in the city until late in the evening

Contrary to what is often the case in the event of aircraft diversions, passengers did not spend the night in the Stewart Airport area, before continuing on to JFK. Rather, the airline provided transportation to New York via bus later that evening, with different buses chartered for different classes of service. As a reminder, the Singapore Airlines Airbus A380 is configured as follows:

The lumbering aircraft spent the night at New York Stewart Airport, as weather conditions slowly improved overnight. The next day, the plane was ferried back to JFK, but not before SWF’s media team had a chance to express their excitement at their unexpected visitor.

4

International arrivals procedure

Fortunately, the airport is equipped for international flights

Diversion airports, especially those for large long-haul international flights, may need more than a lengthy runway to be an appropriate diversion facility. Fortunately, New York Stewart Airport does maintain a customs and border protection processing facility, which does allow for international visitors.

Photo: JEERAPAN JANKAEW | Shutterstock

As a result, those who disembarked off of the A380 directly into snowy conditions were quickly able to enter the terminal and pass through immigration control services before getting on their buses. At the time, the airport did have regular transatlantic international flights from Norwegian Air Shuttle.

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5

A large international service

Total passengers: 325

As a small international airport that sees less than 150,000 annual passengers, a massive 325-passenger international flight was undoubtedly going to attract attention. Currently, the following carriers serve the airport with the following destinations:

Photo: Vytautas Kielaitis | Shutterstock

According to ABC News, the Singapore Airlines A380 that landed at the facility had 325 passengers on board. This is significantly lower than the current international flights operated to the airport, which are both services on narrowbody aircraft.

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