How severe weather affects air traffic in Columbus
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – It is now Severe Weather Awareness Week in Ohio, with the state testing its tornado warning sirens Wednesday.
Tornado warnings will be more likely as spring arrives, and there were also some this past winter.
Less than a month ago, parts of central Ohio, including Franklin County, were under a tornado warning on the afternoon of Feb. 27.
A Pickerington couple and their daughter were supposed to be landing at John Glenn International Airport at that time.
“It just was really dark clouds and them saying we were so far from it didn't make a lot of sense because it was very dark clouds like you couldn't see anything,” said Samantha Babcock. “It was just dark, and it shouldn't have been dark that time of day.”
Babcock was with her husband and 12-year-old daughter coming back from Dallas. As their plane was getting close to Columbus, they noticed the plane was starting to circle.
“The time kept saying 13 minutes, so we were trying to talk without the 12-year-old realizing what we were saying,” Babcock said. “That it wasn’t exactly as smooth as we thought it was going to be.”
She said the pilot came on and told the passengers that the air traffic control tower had ben evacuated because of severe weather. A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that Indianapolis provided air traffic services while the tower at John Glenn International was briefly evacuated.
“My other kids were texting like, ‘How are you going to land,’ because it was so windy and my oldest was coming to pick us up from the airport and she was like, ‘I can’t drive in this. It’s so bad,’ and I’m like, ‘Then how are we landing?’”
The plane ended up first landing in Cincinnati to get more fuel, then getting back safely to Columbus around eight that night.
A spokesperson for the airport authority said it notifies partners about storm warnings, monitors forecasts and radar, closes the airfield if necessary, and advises passengers to shelter in place if necessary.