'Time just continued growing': Flat tires forced passengers to face hours-long wait at RSW
Two flat tires at Southwest Florida International Airport created uncertainty, closing the airport's sole runway for nearly nine hours this week, causing dozens of delays and cancellations.
United flight 2274, which arrived from Newark, New Jersey, had blown tires upon landing at RSW 11:12 a.m. Tuesday.
Tim Ingwersen's son was among the hundreds of affected passengers.
His son was slated to land at RSW at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday on a JetBlue flight. Instead, the flight landed nearly six hours after the scheduled time.
"We were going to be picking him up around 4:30 p.m. and he texted us around 1 p.m. and said that JetBlue was reporting that a plane had blown a tire on the runway of RSW and that for now RSW was closed," Ingersen told The News-Press.
Ingwersen said they thought that'd take one to two hours.
"Time just continued growing and growing," Ingwersen said. "Frustration was mounting."
The runway remained closed for eight hours and 50 minutes, said Victoria Moreland, spokesperson for the Lee County Port Authority.
Prior: RSW open again after United Airlines flight blows tires on runway
After Ian: RSW will resume normal flight operations Tuesday, Oct. 11
The closure impacted 19 outgoing and 19 incoming flights.
Benjamin Siegel, executive director at the Lee County Port Authority, didn't respond to multiple requests for comment.
"Blown tires have happened before at RSW but not to this degree," Moreland wrote in a statement.
Six crew members and 154 passengers were aboard the United Airlines flight. Hundreds more were aboard the other flights unable to land.
"The (United) plane taxied to the taxiway, customers deplaned in an orderly fashion via stairs, and were bused to the terminal," Joshua Freed, spokesperson for United Airlines, wrote in a statement.
Freed said the plane couldn't be moved safely until they changed the tires.
Incoming flights diverted to Orlando, Miami, Sarasota, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, among others.
"We explored multiple options for doing this," Freed wrote. "We reached out to other airlines to find the closest appropriate equipment for safely replacing the tires."
The correct jack to lift the disabled Boeing 737-800 is a specialized piece of equipment that isn't typically kept at every airport, Freed added.
"Ultimately, the safest, quickest way to repair and move the aircraft was to drive a jack to RSW from Orlando," Freed wrote. "Our mechanics left Orlando as soon as this was determined."
The airports are about 170 miles from each other, about a three-hour drive.
As soon as the piece arrived, United employees repaired the plane quickly and safely and moved the aircraft, Freed added.
Mark Storrs, a former pilot, waited at RSW at the time of the incident told The News-Press planes don't often get flat tires, and added as a rule that may be a result of a hard landing.
Storrs said when he walked on the concourse around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday he saw fire trucks approaching the airplane.
United Airlines continues to investigate the incident.
Ingwersen, whose son's flight was delayed, said JetBlue was trying to relay the information they had, but details they received were scarce.
"Ultimately, we were one of the fortunate ones because they did not cancel his flight," Ingwersen said. "He ended up landing last night a little bit after 10 p.m."
He added other friends diverted to Miami.
"I think they were supposed to land sometime around one 1 p.m.," Ingwersen said. "So they spent the afternoon in Miami and they got a bus back."
While he waited, Ingwersen said he jumped onto social media to check for updates from RSW or United Airlines, but when that search came out empty, it only created more frustration.
"We had no idea let alone it was gonna last eight-and-a-half hours," Ingwersen said. "We were also worried that at the end of the day, they were finally just going to say, 'We're keeping the airport closed until Wednesday.'"
Nearly 1,000 miles away, Ingwersen's son was hearing that the airlines weren't reimbursing anybody for hotels because it wasn't their fault, he said.
"It just doesn't make any sense to me that it took eight-and-a-half hours to move an aircraft a couple of hundred yards," Ingwersen said, echoing Moreland's stance. "RSW basically said it's not their problem ... It's United [Airlines'] problem."
Tuesday's events left Ingwersen with many questions.
"I know they said they wanted to inspect the runway to make sure it wasn't damaged when the tires blew," Ingwersen said. "But I can't believe inspecting the runway will take eight-and-a-half hours. So it's just it was just frustrating to all of us."
During this time, Storrs reported seeing scarcely a 15-minute delay for his outgoing flight, which then turned into several hours.
Time discrepancies
Elizabeth Cory, spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that if the 15-minute delay was on their website it refers to a computer algorithm that predicts potential delays based on flights in the sky.
"The FAA calculates predicted delays based on the information it has about aircraft moving at that moment in time," Cory said.
The News-Press has reached out to Morgan & Morgan and asked how they handle passenger rights in scenarios like this. A spokesperson said she would only answer questions related to filing a lawsuit.
Other experts related to consumer relations for airline passengers also did not return calls.
Moreland said a parallel runway is planned at RSW for the future.
In 2019, Lee County Port Authority officials announced plans to add build the parallel runway. At the time, officials said the project is to be completed within 10 years.
Tomas Rodriguez is a Breaking/Live News Reporter for the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. You can reach Tomas at TRodriguez@gannett.com or 772-333-5501. Connect with him on Twitter @TomasFRoBeltran, Instagram @tomasfrobeltran and Facebook @tomasrodrigueznews.
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: RSW runway closure caused dozens of delays, cancellations, officials say
