Wednesday night's winter weather caused issues at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport.
Frances Swain and Tyson Luneau planned to be home in Massachusetts by now. Instead, they’re getting ready to spend the night in the airport.
"They loaded us on the plane,” Frances describes. "We were getting ready to de-ice. So the pilot said it was going to be delayed a few minutes. We started to worry we might not make our connection. Sure enough, a few minutes later, the pilot came back on and said he had bad news. They had just closed the airfield because there were a couple of planes that were stuck on the ice, on the runways. So we all had to get off the plane"
For about two hours, the airfield at Mitchell was shut down, as crews hustled to clear the runways and airplanes of ice. That created a lot of delays, and some cancellations.
Frances and Tyson are scheduled to leave Milwaukee at 5 a.m. Thursday.
"I'm going to try and sleep," Frances says. "I don't know if I will or not. I guess this is something to check off my bucket list."
“As long as I get enough of a nap to function, I’ll be okay,” Tyson adds. “I look at this as urban camping adventure. It will make me extra thankful for my bed tomorrow."
Not everyone is taking it as well. Jacob Fox, who was on his way to Seattle, will also be sleeping in the airport overnight. But he's found something to help ease his frustration.
“The key is to stay at the bar as long as you can,” he says.
The real key is that no one was injured due to the slick runways. Most of the travelers say if they have to stay overnight in an airport, they’re relieved it’s here in Milwaukee, where it’s clean and friendly.
