YAKIMA, Wash.- Severe winter weather resulted in two cancelled flights for the Yakima Air Terminal. Dense fog in Yakima caused limited visibility for Monday night’s flight from Seattle, causing a domino effect for YKM.
With the January 8 flight being cancelled, the early Tuesday morning flight was cancelled as well. YKM Airport Director Robert Hodgeman explains FAA restrictions caused SeaTac to cancel the departing flight, leaving the travel schedule up in the air.
“The plane that travels out tomorrow morning is the plane that is flying in tonight at midnight, so you have to have both,” says Hodgeman. “In this particular case, we had the crew here on the ground ready to fly out Tuesday morning, but the plane wasn’t able to make it over.”
The Airport Director was set to be on the Tuesday flight to connect in Seattle for a flight to Washington D.C. He says instead, he had to cancel his flights and do business remotely instead of in person.
“The reality is sometimes you just don’t fly that day,” says Hodgeman.
Because of the winter conditions over Snoqualmie Pass, many passengers were rebooked on flights for Tuesday or Wednesday evening instead of driving, which YKM says happens often.
When winter weather approaches, the airport is often well prepared. Hodgeman says cancellations for YKM are rare, the maintenance team is always ready to prepare the airport for a safe flight.
The most likely culprits for delays at YKM include ice on the runway or engines, heavy fog and freezing rain.
The maintenance team is adapting to a new schedule, after only having a three-hour window to keep the area clear before a second flight was added to the schedule.
“We do have a lot of equipment and we do have all of the chemicals and means to de-ice and clear,” says Hodgeman. “This team is very, very dedicated, sometimes they don’t get much sleep when we have a big snow or ice event, but I really appreciate the work that they do.”
The YKM operations team will also scout the weather reports to anticipate which flights are at risk of being delayed or cancelled and how to prepare for the weather.
