Travel at Tampa International Airport impacted by thick smoke blanketing the northeast

TAMPA (WFLA) — The thick smoke from the Canadian wildfires that’s smothered the northeast is having a ripple effect on travel at Tampa International Airport.

While there was only one cancellation, several flights to and from the New York metro area airports were delayed on Wednesday.

“It’s pretty crazy,” René Dierkes said. “I haven’t seen in that hazy before in my life except for one place and that was in Beijing, China.”

In Tampa for a business trip, Dierkes’ return flight to Newark Liberty International Airport was delayed nearly two hours.

“It looks worse than yesterday,” he said. “It absolutely does look worse.”

A recent University of Tampa graduate, Gabi Volpacchio showed 8 On Your Side the conditions outside of her home in Westchester, New York.

“It’s almost like a tint of orange, too,” she said. “It’s very smoky like it smells like a bonfire when you’re outside.”

During the FAA’s ground stop of flights at Laguardia Airport Wednesday afternoon, Jayden Diaz said he sat for 90 minutes on the tarmac before takeoff.

“We couldn’t even see outside the plane ’cause it was straight orange,” Diaz said. “Thank god I got on the plane before it got all bad cause according to my friends it burns to breathe.”

Kristin Boyd and her daughter Jaedyn were also on that delayed flight back to Tampa after they went to Tuesday night’s Yankees game in the Bronx.

“Around 5:30, it started getting really eerie and there was like black smoke and like grey smoke,” Jaedyn Boyd said, “and it was taking over and it started hurting my eyes and stuff and I started coughing.”

Unfortunately for Maya Gordon, her visit to a friend in Brooklyn is up in the air after her flight from TPA to Laguardia got canceled.

“We had plans to go out tonight,” Gordon said. “She’s like I’m not leaving the house so I’m not even sure what we’re gonna do when I get there.”

Source: WFLA