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Shutdown Of Chicago Airports Creates Woes For Travelers

(CBS/AP) -- For some travelers, their trip to the airport started out routine.

But beyond the security gates, it was anything but routine.

At Chicago's Midway Airport, the lines were practically never-ending.

CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez talked with some of the stranded passengers.

These are the folks that got their boarding passes, went through security and, in one case, even boarded the plane -- only to watch their travel plans implode.

Jenny Honeycutt tweeted from a Southwest Airlines flight diverted from Midway to Louisville.

The captain said we "could be here 30 minutes or 3 hours." Her next Tweet was from a growing customer service line in Louisville.

"You could see a little bit of frustration welling up from the stand point that no one knew what was happening," CBS 2's Brian Comerford said.

The scene was similar at O'Hare, where Diana Eubanks photographed the crowded concourse, the flight cancelations and the weary travelers.

Honeycutt, that passenger stranded in Louisville, jumped in a car with five strangers. "I'm determined to get to my cousin's wedding," she Tweeted.

Not landing at Midway may have been the best thing that happened to Honeycutt today.

At O'Hare, some passengers simply gave up and returned home.

Brothers Glenn and Gary Campbell, of suburban Chicago, had planned to travel to the Orlando, Florida, area to attend their father's 80th birthday party. Instead, they settled for refunds.

"That it is so easy to disrupt the system is disturbing," said Gary Campbell, a carpenter from Crystal Lake. "They need to see how to make sure this kind of thing doesn't happen again."

John Kois, 36, of Seattle, had planned to spend a weekend with his girlfriend in Detroit. The financial analyst cut his losses and decided to rent a car and drive the four hours.

"What are you going to do?" said Kois, waiting to retrieve bags he had checked in before the flights were cancelled. "You make the best of it."

Jon Sciarrini said his homebound flight to Dallas had been delayed, and he didn't know whether he should wait or try to arrange another flight.

"It's pretty frustrating -- a little like being in purgatory," the IT specialist said.

(Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS Radio and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

 

 

 

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