Storms Cause Major Flight Delays as Memorial Day Weekend Comes to a Close and Strong Winds Spin a Boeing 737 Like a Top

An America Airlines Boeing 737 in Miami
It wasn’t a good day to travel and, if anything serves to point that out, it was that a Boeing 737 aircraft that weighs 90,000 pounds (41,000 kg) was on Tuesday blown across part of the apron – the area between the terminal building and the taxiway – at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport where it was parked at gate C31. Airport surveillance video shows the 737 being spun away from its original position at the gate as if it were a leaf being blown by a gentle gust of wind.
Severe weather in the region, which began over the Memorial Day weekend holiday, continued into Tuesday and Wednesday, as many stranded travelers struggled to get on a flight after hundreds of cancellations and thousands of delays.
Destructive storms over the three-day weekend caused the deaths of at least 24 people in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, North Carolina, and Virginia.
Widespread power outages were reported and numerous roads and highways in the affected areas were severely flooded.
On Wednesday, there were 6,989 flight delays within, into, and out of the United States, and an additional 527 cancellations, according to FlightAware, which tracks such information. The figures the previous two days were 7,647 delays and 1,162 cancellations on Tuesday, and 8,709 delays and 585 cancellations on Monday.
As of 12:15 a.m. EDT on Thursday, there had already been 216 delays and 72 cancellations in the United States.
American Airlines, which is based in Fort Worth and has its third-largest hub at DFW,  had the most flight delays and cancellations for the first three days of the week, but United Airlines, which has a hub in Houston, and Southwest Airlines – which is based in Dallas and has its largest hub at Dallas Love Field, were not terribly far behind.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)