Wednesday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport, FDNY firefighters responded to reports of smoke shortly after 7 a.m. Upon investigation, it was found that an escalator at Terminal 8’s Concourse C had caught on fire.
The smoky conditions resulted in the evacuation of Terminal 8. Airport officials told CBS that this meant moving roughly 960 people to another terminal. Thankfully, the FDNY was able to extinguish the fire relatively quickly.
According to CBS News, several international carriers are housed in Terminal 8. This includes American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Southern, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Level, Qantas, Qatar Airways, and Royal Jordanian.
Across these carriers, the airport’s flight tracker has reported the delay or cancelation of about 37 flights.
Though there were no serious injuries, at least nine people did suffer minor ones. Steve Burns, spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told Forbes that four of these nine were being hospitalized for non-life-threatening injuries.
Even though none of the injured individuals are in danger medically speaking, witnessing or being hurt by a fire can still be a scary experience. A man who was waiting for his daughter told CBS New York:
“She called me and told me there was smoke at the terminal she was at. I saw the smoke on FaceTime, and I’ve been on FaceTime with her for about an hour and a half”.
Meanwhile, a passenger on a stalled plane posted a video on X that showed the fire trucks responding to the call.
Considering that this fire occurred so soon after the global Microsoft outage, one could say that airlines and airports are not having a great season. One airline, though, anticipates good news:
According to Forbes, “Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said…the airline anticipated operations returning to normal after five straight days of delays and cancellations caused by a global technology outage”.
The cause of the fire is currently under investigation.
While flights were briefly impacted, they have since resumed, with operations starting back up at 8:15 a.m., ABC News says. Travelers are encouraged to check their flight status before getting to the airport.
