Incoming and outgoing flights at Long Beach Airport are experiencing delays, with a pair of flights having been diverted to nearby airports, after a military aircraft with mechanical issues landed on Friday just before noon, airport officials said.
The Air Force training jet landed at the airport between 11:00AM and 11:15AM, said airport spokeswoman Cassie Chauvel. The mechanical issues did not happen until the jet already landed and was going down the runway, she said. The jet’s origin or destination was unclear.
Chauvel said the incident on the airfield is causing such long delays because military personnel are attempting to reach the proper channels to approve them to move the jet.
Arrivals experiencing temporary delays @LBAirport due to nonemergency incident on airfield. Check w/airlines for more info. Updates to come.
— Long Beach Airport (@LBAirport) August 19, 2016
Initially the incident was only impacting incoming flights, but now outgoing flights are also affected, according to Chauvel.
The following flights have been delayed:
- Jetblue flight destined for San Francisco, scheduled to depart at 11:49AM
- Jetblue flight destined for Reno, scheduled to depart at 12:15PM
- Jetblue flight destined for Salt Lake City, scheduled to depart at 2:25PM
- Southwest flight destined for Oakland, scheduled to depart at 2:20PM
Chauvel said there has also been one flight cancellation—a Delta flight destined for Salt Lake City.
Aside from the delayed and canceled flights, two flights out of Salt Lake City with destinations to Long Beach had to be diverted to nearby airports. They included a Delta flight diverted to Los Angeles International Airport and a Jetblue flight diverted to the Ontario International Airport.
Airport officials said they do not know when the incident will clear up, but encouraged passengers to check with their airlines and follow Long Beach Airport’s Twitter page for updates.