Microburst at Logan Airport forced temporary flight grounding

BOSTON — A microburst at Boston Logan International Airport forced flights to be grounded for over an hour as severe weather passed through.

Just before 5 p.m. Wednesday, the National Weather Service announced that arrivals and departures at Logan would resume after the 90-minute ground stop. Maximum wind gusts recorded from the microburst reached 74 mph.

A number of planes could be seen circling western Massachusetts Wednesday afternoon while waiting for the grounding to be lifted.

The delays left travelers frustrated.

"We're going to get home when it’s time to go to work," said Emily Cumings of Columbus, Georgia.

Rahman Aalmousalali of St. Louis said he was in the air, with his flight landing around 3 p.m.

"Like 10 minutes after we landed, the plane started shaking, almost felt like actually in the air," Aalmousalali said. "It was bad outside."

All landings and takeoffs were halted during the worst of the weather.

As planes in the air circled, the ones on the ground held in place.

"We landed right before the storm at 3 o'clock and then it came in as we were waiting for a gate and sat there for almost three hours waiting to get a gate again," said Brittany Cross of Jacksonville, Florida.

"We landed and stayed on the tarmac for almost two hours," said Kwame Appiah of Worcester.

The ground stop was lifted before 5 p.m., but the damage was already done. FlightAware reported 380 flight delays and 100 cancellations.

The average delay was nearly three hours.

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Cox Media Group