DTW Closed due to Snow and Ice

CRJ200flyer · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:59 am

DTW AD AP CLSD 1901230108

Current METAR
KDTW 230053Z 21006KT 4SM -FZRA BKN028 OVC035 M02/M07 A3012

No arrivals in the last 40 minutes.

https://flightaware.com/live/airport/KDTW

DTWLAX · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:03 am

Wow - there must be some really extreme weather!!
DTW is one of the best equipped airports for severe weather

adambrau · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:06 am

Just checked the FAA delay website - seems like ORD is doing the worst...

Due to WEATHER / SNOW-ICE, there is a Traffic Management Program in effect for traffic arriving Chicago OHare International Airport, Chicago, IL (ORD). This is causing some arriving flights to be delayed an average of 6 hours and 18 minutes. To see if you may be affected, select your departure airport and check "Delays by Destination".

CRJ200flyer · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:07 am

So far I see:

CLE Diversions:
SW3988 STL
NK1607 LAX
DL6221 EWR
DL6263 ALB
DL797 AUS
DL3376 EVV
DL3725 LAN
DL798 BDL

PIT Diversions:
DL3867 ORF
DL2587 EWR
DL1996 MKE

CMH Diversions:
DL888 LGA
DL1281 BNA

IND Diversions:
DL2880 LAX
DL5968 IND (came back!)

FNT Diversions:
DL3576 SAT

CVG Diversions:
DL2481 MSY
DL2789 RSW
DL2687 ATL

PSU.DTW.SCE · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:13 am

Freezing rain.

Worse than snow.

DiamondFlyer · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:19 am

Skywest put one off the taxiway in FWA this evening as well.

yeogeo · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:22 am

adambrau wrote:
Just checked the FAA delay website - seems like ORD is doing the worst...

ORD is accepting some arrivals and departures but DTW is shut down... and yet Chicago is doing worse? Interesting! :scratchchin:

adambrau · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:30 am

yeogeo wrote:
adambrau wrote:
Just checked the FAA delay website - seems like ORD is doing the worst...

ORD is accepting some arrivals and departures but DTW is shut down... and yet Chicago is doing worse? Interesting!

OK you are right - when I checked DTW was open but now appears closed. Safe travels all - been a tough couple of days!

PSU.DTW.SCE · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:31 am

Well freezing rain will shut almost anyone done.

DL is diverting the late evening arrival bank all over the place - CLE, PIT, CMH, IND, CVG, MSP.

I'm in western Oakland County and we started getting freezing rain around 6pm and temps are still in the 20s here. DTW seems to be getting hit hard by band of freezing rain currently.

yeogeo · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:42 am

https://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/

Ground Stop until tomorrow (Wednesday) at UTC 06:00 (1am Eastern if I am converting UTC correctly).

tb727 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:46 am

It's very slick out! I was wondering when they were going to pull the plug for a few hours, I slid down my driveway. Supposed to be in the low 40's by mid morning though.

pitbosflyer · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:46 am

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:
Freezing rain.

Worse than snow.

Just a few days ago freezing rain shut down BOS for days. They are still recovering. Check out the "Boston Meltdown" thread. Hopefully Detroit fares alittle better.

Wingtips56 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:47 am

FlightAware had shown it closed until 18:59 EST tomorrow, but has now updated it to 01:00 EST.

tb727 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:47 am

NKS892 from MCO just went to CLE and NKS782 from BWI is heading to PIT.

Wingtips56 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:48 am

It looked like AA2753 (DFW) was holding out to give it a shot, but now they have turned for PIT

Edit: update. FLIFO now shows the diversion to PIT, but with a plan to gas and go, departing PIT at 23:15, returning to DTW after midnight. We'll see ......

Another update: now FLIFO shows it staying the night at PIT, departing at 10:15. Better decision, if they can get the passengers into a hotel. I think any attempt to get back in tonight will either drag out or fall apart after holding the passengers too long. Some of the earlier diversions might have a shot tonight, but the later ones will be too far back in the pecking order to fly before the crews time-out.

flymco753 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:13 am

Well, looks like I might not be able to get home to FL on Friday using standby. Everything to ATL and MCO are full as of now. Some availability to TPA, dont think that will last though. Standby is goimg to be a wreck.

Beechtobus · Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:21 am

NK678 RSW-DTW diverted to CAK along with 3-4 DL RJs

airportugal310 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:26 am

flymco753 wrote:
Well, looks like I might not be able to get home to FL on Friday using standby. Everything to ATL and MCO are full as of now. Some availability to TPA, dont think that will last though. Standby is goimg to be a wreck.

That's pretty much why I started buying plane tickets instead. Not worth the hassle during certain parts of the year, in certain parts of the country.

TW870 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:57 am

DiamondFlyer wrote:
Skywest put one off the taxiway in FWA this evening as well.

Good god Joe Patroni just isn't getting a day off!

But seriously the freezing rain has been just terrible in these storms. I picked up about an eighth of an inch of ice in an hour on my car (I live an hour south of FWA) in the last storm, and it took forever to get the ice off the windshield. Good luck to everyone out there working in these conditions.

Jshank83 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 4:34 am

DL 2837 from MCI diverted to STL. Interesting one got out of MCI since they had a bunch of diversions themselves.

iahcsr · Wed Jan 23, 2019 8:13 am

Jshank83 wrote:
DL 2837 from MCI diverted to STL. Interesting one got out of MCI since they had a bunch of diversions themselves.

I had a friend flying EWRMCI tonight. They also diverted to STL... due to MCI doing runway snow removal. They were only there for about 40 minutes before heading back to MCI

slcguy · Wed Jan 23, 2019 10:40 am

Not surprised, for those that haven't experienced it. Freezing rain is bad, a lot worse than snow which you can plow off. Freezing rain puts a smooth layer of ice down that has no friction whatsoever. Best you can do is put sand down for friction and chemical to try to break the bond between ice and pavement. In the mean time planes probably won't move or if they do they might be spinning around in circles on taxiways. I have seen it! Working on ramp and gates is near impossible too, seeing baggage handlers slipping and falling down like one of those old time keystone cop movies just trying to unload baggage, took them nearly an hour to offload one plane because they were on their butts more than standing. Another time a slow moving B727 trying to turn into a gate closest to the terminal, nose wheel turns plane keeps going straight, brakes applied plane keeps sliding forward, finally full reverse thrust applied and stopped the aircraft about 10 feet short of going nose first into the building! This was with about 1/8th inch of freezing rain ice on pavement.

CRJ200flyer · Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:29 am

The new expected opening time is listed as 7am. The airport has now been closed for 10 hours.

Looks like the first arrival will be DL434 PHX-DTW.

https://flightaware.com/live/flight/DAL434

EDIT: The aircraft has re-filed and appears to be diverting to MSP.

N757ST · Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:03 pm

The best source of info is directly from the OIS site and not third party like flightaware. DTW is only in a groundstop for Delta flights.

CTL ELEMENT: DTW
ELEMENT TYPE: APT
ADL TIME: 1127Z
GROUND STOP PERIOD: 23/1117Z - 23/1230Z
FLT INCL: CARRIER DAL ONLY
DEP FACILITIES INCLUDED: (1stTier) ZAU ZDC ZNY ZOB ZBW ZID ZMP
PREVIOUS TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 271 / 49 / 23
NEW TOTAL, MAXIMUM, AVERAGE DELAYS: 571 / 79 / 48
PROBABILITY OF EXTENSION: MEDIUM
IMPACTING CONDITION: OTHER / OTHER
COMMENTS:
EFFECTIVE TIME: 231129 - 231330
SIGNATURE: 19/01/23 11:29

compensateme · Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:22 pm

SEA, LAX and PHX redeyes diverted to MSP. LAS RedEye is scheduled to be the first flight in, less than 30 minutes from now... the 7:20AM to LGA is scheduled to depart in 5 minutes, making it the first one out.... tons of cancellations and delays though...

Update - LAS diverted to MSP as well, and LGA is in an infinite delay loop...

PSU.DTW.SCE · Wed Jan 23, 2019 12:57 pm

In sure seems like the weather reports leading up to this storm sure missed the call for extended periods of freezing rain.

Only yesterday afternoon did they start predicting a change of freezing rain during the transition.

Not hours of it, not every school district in SE Michigan calling off, not the airport being closed for almost 12 hours.

Newbiepilot · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:14 pm

This will be an interesting recovery. There are also a number of flights from yesterday evening that diverted and crew had to go to rest. Overnight diversions aren’t that easy to recover from. DTW closed with many inbound flights. I am curious what the number of diversions was, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it is almost 100 planes.

compensateme wrote:
SEA, LAX and PHX redeyes diverted to MSP. LAS RedEye is scheduled to be the first flight in, less than 30 minutes from now... the 7:20AM to LGA is scheduled to depart in 5 minutes, making it the first one out.... tons of cancellations and delays though...

Update - LAS diverted to MSP as well, and LGA is in an infinite delay loop...

MSP is closer to DTW, but I do wonder if Delta will have the crew available to fly once the airport opens. MSP would have some spare crews, but given all the delays for weather in the past week, will they have enough crew with available hours to cover? Sending red eye flights into a closed airport seems quite risky. Delta has a tendency to try to keep to their schedule more than some other airlines. In this case, it will be interesting to see how long the recovery takes. There are a whole lot of extra Delta planes in IND, CVG, PIT, etc.

flymco753 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:15 pm

Severe storms expected throughout Florida today. What. A. Living. Nightmare.

PSU.DTW.SCE · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:21 pm

Probably not 100 flights but more in the range of 30-40. Basically all the inbound for the last arrival bank around 8-9pm diverted, plus the red eyes that launched with the intent the airport would have been open by early morning. Many of the later RONs cancelled like the late arrivals from Msp, AtL, and Oal flights.

Something like this hasn’t happened in quite a while that I can remember with this much extended icing.

It’s now falling as rain where I am at but part of the problem is the ground is so cold it still freezes on contact.

tys777 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:23 pm

AA MIA-DTW is inbound. Eta in a hour. Will be interesting to see if it makes it on the ground in DTW. Nothing else currently showing until DL AMS flight

florens · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:30 pm

DL158 A359 ICN-DTW diverting to MSP.

Newbiepilot · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:41 pm

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:
Probably not 100 flights but more in the range of 30-40. Basically all the inbound for the last arrival bank around 8-9pm diverted, plus the red eyes that launched with the intent the airport would have been open by early morning. Many of the later RONs cancelled like the late arrivals from Msp, AtL, and Oal flights.

Something like this hasn’t happened in quite a while that I can remember with this much extended icing.

It’s now falling as rain where I am at but part of the problem is the ground is so cold it still freezes on contact.

Spirit, American, United, all has diversions as well. I assume it is over 50 diversions. Not sure how many in total.

Newbiepilot · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:43 pm

tys777 wrote:
AA MIA-DTW is inbound. Eta in a hour. Will be interesting to see if it makes it on the ground in DTW. Nothing else currently showing until DL AMS flight

All inbound flights are now held until at least 930. We will see what happens with this flight.

AA had a MIA flight get as far as Kentucky last night before diverting back to MIA.

Lemieux · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:45 pm

Going PIT-DCA today, walked by and saw AA 774 CLT-DTW going out of a gate, made me do a double take. What a nightmare indeed

DL717 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:46 pm

Going to me a messy day. Much of the Midwest got a nice little layer of ice yesterday before a pretty good snow dump. Good day to stay home. It’s supposed to snow here until 2 or so.

PSU.DTW.SCE · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:51 pm

Now looking for hopefully a 10am re-open.

johns624 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 1:52 pm

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:
It’s now falling as rain where I am at but part of the problem is the ground is so cold it still freezes on contact.

That's what freezing rain is. Sleet is when rain freezes into pellets on the way down. I'll take sleet over freezing rain any day.

flyguy84 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:00 pm

Not only are all the runways closed, all the taxiways as well. It’s warming up tho, so hopefully won’t be much longer.

LHUSA · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:02 pm

That AA flight is still on track to land in 26 mins. Pretty brazen of them. If they make it in, what lucky pax.

SteveXC500 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:08 pm

DL717 wrote:
Going to me a messy day. Much of the Midwest got a nice little layer of ice yesterday before a pretty good snow dump. Good day to stay home. It’s supposed to snow here until 2 or so.

Fine day here in MSP!

yeogeo · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:13 pm

OIS is now showing airport closure until 10am eastern.
https://www.fly.faa.gov/ois/

evank516 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:18 pm

Crazy. Meanwhile in NY we've gotten nothing this year except rain for the most part. Hopefully things resolve fast. The temperature in Romulus has risen above 32 degrees so freezing rain should end and it should change to plain rain.

UpNAWAy · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:22 pm

LHUSA wrote:
That AA flight is still on track to land in 26 mins. Pretty brazen of them. If they make it in, what lucky pax.

They just did a big U Turn? Circling or diverting?

KLM747er · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:24 pm

The MIA flight is now holding around Mansfield (MFD) here the link https://www.flightradar24.com/AAL2054/1f44b80d
Probably diverting as well.

KLM747er

flyguy84 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:24 pm

www.airportviewer.com/airport/KDTW

Y’all can check out this and see the vehicles at work trying to get the surface back open.

flyguy84 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:31 pm

Looks like they will re-open shortly in a Ground Delay Progam with 5 hour delays.

PSU.DTW.SCE · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:36 pm

Probably means they are going to reopen with just 22L only for both arrivals and departures and probably work to get 21R open next.

tjwgrr · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:53 pm

Lots of stranded widgets at the gates:

https://www.clickondetroit.com/live/liv ... ro-airport

tys777 · Wed Jan 23, 2019 2:54 pm

PSU.DTW.SCE wrote:
Probably means they are going to reopen with just 22L only for both arrivals and departures and probably work to get 21R open next.

22L is currently open. AA is back inbound and descending.

PSU.DTW.SCE · Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:00 pm

Yeah, they shut down last night right before the 8pm departure bank so there naturally would be a lot of airplanes on the gates including the late TATL flights never went out.

DL's first flights to depart this morning are supposed to be ATL, MSP, BOS at 10am

It will be an interesting reset, but nowhere near as bad as when ATL goes down and crashes the whole network.

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