Quote:
Originally Posted by DRHHUB
I was on a flight last year Chicago O'Hare to Knoxville. Weather from the east was terrible.
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Knoxville being east of Chicago (well southeast, but more east than where you were), I thought you meant Knoxville was included in the bad weather. The question then would be why did they tell you the flight was delayed?
There's a world of reasons why you would get delayed in that case. It all could still be weather related. What airline was this, and by that I don't just mean United or American, I mean were you on a regular airline, or one of the commuter connections? If it was a commuter, as I suspect going to Knoxville would be from O'hare, then it could have been an issue of winds, or visibility. Either could be a problem with storms around or on the way. The other half of this is the airport itself. Things like runway length and landing systems.
Another thing to consider is if there were bad storms in the area (even if not over Knoxville at the time) what was happening in Atlanta? ATL is pretty close flight wise to Knoxville. If things were bad there, the air space may have been congested, and air traffic control may have put a hold on your flight. The same could have happened in Chicago. With all the delays inbound the Chicago controllers may have held departing flights due to too many airplanes flying.
You have to consider that Chicago and Atlanta are the two busiest airports in the world. That's going to include the air space around them. When you get storms in the area, they have to start spacing planes apart. That can cause backups.