Flights resume at O’Hare, Midway after dense fog grounds aircraft on Christmas Eve

Kayla Williams got to O’Hare Airport at her sister’s scheduled arrival time of 8 a.m. Tuesday with a homemade sign to welcome her home from Memphis.

“Her arrival times kept changing, and I was wondering if I was even in the right spot,” said Williams, who drove in from Racine, Wisconsin. “I didn’t think I would be here for hours.”

While Williams anxiously walked around in baggage claim, her sister’s plane circled the airport when dense fog led authorities to issue ground stops at O’Hare and Midway airports.

“We were just 20 minutes away when our pilot let us know the severe fog was preventing us from landing,” Kaliyah Liggins said. “Our plane was literally just flying in circles.”

Liggins’ flight was delayed more than three times, Williams said.

Manny Ramos/Sun-Times

The FAA issued the ground stop about 6:30 a.m. It was lifted about 8 a.m. at Midway and about 9:30 a.m. at O’Hare.

More than 50 flights were canceled at O’Hare, and more than 70 flights have been canceled at Midway, split evenly between arrivals and departures, according to the Chicago Aviation Department.

Arrivals at O’Hare were delayed by an average of about 40 minutes, while arrivals at Midway are delayed by less than 15 minutes, the Aviation Department said.

The National Weather Service issued a dense fog advisory for the Chicago area until 10 a.m. Cook, DuPage, Kane, McHenry, Winnebago and Boone are the counties most affected.

The foggy conditions were due to moisture that had blown in from the south in recent days mixing with chillier northerly winds overnight, weather service meteorologist Kevin Donofrio said.

“These are just about the worst conditions you can have for flying,” Donofrio said. “When visibility gets down to a quarter-mile, that’s when it gets really dangerous for planes to land.”

The ground stop comes amid of one of the year’s busiest travel periods, as an estimated 5 million people pass through O’Hare and Midway for the holidays.

Contributing: CST Wire