HENRICO, Va. (WWBT) -The FAA issued a ground stop on one of the year’s busiest travel days, impacting families nationwide, including those at Richmond International Airport.
While there were no cancellations out of RIC, seven delays were more significant than an hour. One of the longest ones was a flight to Charlotte that was set to take off around 6 a.m. It was then moved to 2:30 p.m., which affected a Caroline County family’s plans.
Sharie Sabie is flying with her son to see her daughter in Anchorage, Alaska. She lives in Caroline and made the trek to the airport early Tuesday morning. She got through security and to her gate but found out her flight was delayed multiple hours.
It’s not her first time going to Alaska, but the trip usually requires two connections before reaching the final destination. This time, the journey was making stops in Charlotte and Seattle.
Even though American Airlines got flights back up and running in about an hour, the Sabie family could not connect, mainly because of residual delays across the country.
“They said that there was a problem with the plane. So then we said okay, there was a delay. So, we waited around, and then the whole system went down,” Sabie said.
American Airlines says a vendor technology issue shut down its system completely.
The airline rebooked Sabie for a Christmas morning flight that will land in Alaska around 5 p.m. Sabie says it also gave her an additional day at the back end of her trip, moving her flight home to January 3 rather than the second.
“I’m going to get my luggage and probably go back home and just wait for tomorrow, get up and do everything again,” Sabie said.
While she’s sad to miss the Christmas morning festivities, she’s trying to be patient and kind since everyone around her is also trying to stay in the holiday spirit. She says others at her gate were understanding of the issue as well.
“There’s other things that worse could happen,” she said. “Things happen, so you just got to push through and continue.”
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