ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Delta canceled two of its three daily flights from Rochester to LaGuardia today following a collision at the New York City airport.
News10NBC’s Erin Mahon spoke with travelers at the Greater Rochester International Airport to hear how they felt about flying after seeing reports of the crash. She also spoke with the airport’s director to learn how this kind of incident informs airport safety protocol.
Kristen Palermo, traveling to Phoenix, said she didn’t want to fly today. “I’m gonna go sit down and play on my phone to kind of— but, you know, tryna stay calm for them,” Palermo said.
Kristen Goodman said she felt more at ease. “We can only control what we can, right. We know we’re gonna get out today. When we get to Atlanta it might be crazy, but hopefully we’ll get out,” Goodman said.
Travelers had mixed feelings after seeing the crash at LaGuardia. Some felt scared while others still felt safe flying.
Sanjay Hiranandani, traveling to Egypt with his family, said it was unfortunate to see these things happen. “But I think, in general, traveling by air is one of the safest ways to travel,” Hiranandani said.
Delta’s ticket counter told Mahon that travelers were understanding. Workers rebooked some travelers on flights to JFK and others to Atlanta.
To put travelers at ease, Airport Director Andy Moore said the crash is why airports spend so much time on their AEP, or airport emergency plan. “It’s an FAA document that airports are required to have that kind of puts guidelines and protocols and procedures for emergencies that may happen at an airport,” Moore said.
Moore called the AEP a “living document” because it’s updated frequently. Mahon asked if an incident that happens elsewhere, like what happened at LaGuardia, informs a policy change at the Rochester airport.
“It depends. I mean certainly our fire chief here at the airport is monitoring that very closely and I’m sure he will be part of a zoom or a webex or whatever it is, teams, to discuss how things went with responding,” Moore said.
Moore said over the next several weeks, pending the crash’s investigation, airport officials in Rochester may make adjustments to the AEP. In addition to updating the AEP, Moore said the airport simulates drills with law enforcement, air and ground traffic controllers and first responders to test the efficiency of its current policies and procedures. Those drills take place every three years, with the most recent one happening in 2024.
The FAA also performs an annual inspection of the airport, usually in the spring. FAA inspectors come to Rochester for about three days to review the airfield, observe the different operations and ensure training is up to par. Moore said there is not a publicly available copy of the AEP to ensure that emergency plans are kept private to those involved and not interfered with.
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