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New York City’s biggest airport turned into its biggest shitshow over the weekend.
On Sunday afternoon, travelers heading through JFK Airport effectively entered the ninth circle of hell. A pipe burst in the airport’s Terminal 4, causing water to cascade down some of its walls, leaving the baggage claim area flooded. Officials proceeded to cut off power to the area as a safety precaution, which reportedly turned the space into a frigid nightmare.
BREAKING: video from inside of JFK airport shows the terminal flooded with water pic.twitter.com/nqRHguCrE5
— New York City Alerts (@NYCityAlerts) January 7, 2018
Domestic arrivals and departures in the terminal were delayed as a result of the incident, which only compounded a hellish weekend at the airport as officials scrambled to manage the fallout from last week’s “bomb cyclone” snowstorm. Port Authority officials have launched an investigation into the cause of the pipe failure and “hold those responsible accountable for any shortcomings,” according to a press release.
As more delays and cancellations piled up throughout the day, chaotic scenes erupted across the airport. The Daily News reports that Port Authority police officers were dispatched to address a disturbance in response to a canceled Virgin Atlantic flight in Terminal 4—one passenger told the paper that punches were thrown and another described the scene as a “near riot.”
New York City has had its fair share of transit issues of late—the situation at JFK over the weekend was just another feather in our great city’s cap of transportation misery.
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