MacArthur Airport travelers scramble after nationwide ground stop disrupts flights

And for some local travelers, they say the hardest part of getting to their destination is finding a seat on a different airplane. News 12's Jeremy Skiba spoke with passengers at MacArthur Airport about the detours they are making to salvage their trips. I don't want this to happen again, ever. Travelers at MacArthur Airport itching to fly out Saturday following the nationwide ground stop on Friday. Jason Perlow found out at midnight that his flight to Miami was canceled. He's trying to get home to Key West. They basically said most of the flights were taken up, and my only option was now, instead of flying into Miami, I have to fly up to Fort West Palm Beach. Flying here from 1 o'clock, I'll be there at 4 o'clock, and then I have to rent the car, drive all the way down to Key West, which is probably another four hours. At least five departures and one arrival had been canceled at MacArthur on Saturday. Brian Pierre's family was booked on one of those flights. They'll miss a soccer game in Florida, but they expect to make it in time for their cruise. I didn't know how we were going to get to Florida. Thankfully, this place managed to reschedule, and we managed to get to a flight to a different place. Renee Bunting has been trying to get home to North Carolina since Thursday. Weather canceled her first flight Thursday, and the ground stop canceled her Friday flight. It's very frustrating. I've actually had... Obviously, three trips back and forth to the airport, and again, for me, I was fortunate because I had family able to bring me back and forth, but I know for some people, it hasn't been quite that fortunate. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy says aging air traffic control equipment was overwhelmed by data Friday afternoon. That made radar readings and communications with pilots unreliable. Safety is paramount, and so I think what the FAA did was correct, that they had to shut it down, As you dig deeper, you ask the question, well, why did you have to shut it down? What kind of fail-safe, what kind of backups do you have to prevent this from happening again? In Islip, Suffolk County, Jeremy Skiba, News 12.