An incident at a major US airport caused disruptions as over 200 flights were delayed. San Francisco International Airport (SFO) experienced a closure in part of its facilities due to a reported suspicious package on Friday morning. Authorities advised avoiding the departures level of the domestic terminals. The airport faced operational challenges and weather-related issues leading to 190 flight delays and 20 cancellations. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reported an average delay of about an hour and a half.
The San Francisco Police Department dispatched a bomb disposal team to the scene following reports of a suspicious package. The area was evacuated for investigation, with additional resources such as the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit (EOD) present. Terminal 1 reopened fully about two hours after the incident was resolved, with no further details on the nature of the package provided.
Passengers like Raven Davis, en route to Nigeria for a wedding, expressed their distress over the situation, while Victor Barbosa, facing delays, voiced concerns about connecting flights. The incident occurred amidst expectations of a 4% increase in holiday travel at SFO this year, with projections of over six million travelers passing through the airport by New Year’s Day.
Prior to the incident, the airport was under an FAA ground delay due to strong winds, limiting arrivals to 25 flights per hour initially and later raised to 28 flights per hour from Thursday to Friday. Weather-related delays were expected to persist until midnight, as reported by AC7 News.