FAA

JFK Airport Diverts, Delays Hundreds of Flights Amid Control Tower Leak

Hundreds of flights in and out of JFK Airport experienced delays or were diverted to other airports on Saturday

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Air travelers found themselves facing massive delays over the Fourth of July weekend while crews worked around a "minor water leak" at JFK Airport's control tower.

The airport confirmed impacts to arrivals and departures shortly before 7 p.m. on Saturday through its Twitter account. The FAA was holding departing flights bound for JFK until at least 8 p.m.

"JFK controllers are operating from a secondary control tower due to a minor water leak in the main facility," the tweet said.

All inbound flights already airborne and departing planes were experiencing an average delay around 30 minutes, officials said. Early counts showed at least 300 flights experienced some amount of delay Saturday.

The full scope of the impact on air travel wasn't immediately known but an examination of flight data on the airport's website showed dozens of diversions. Both domestic and international flights touched down at airports along the east coast, including Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Miami.

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