Fog and multiple flight disruptions slow the flow at the Santa Barbara Airport

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Thick fog has disrupted flights at the Santa Barbara Airport both Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Some planes did not come in at night and were not on site in the morning, leaving passengers looking for options.

The arrival and departure schedule had several changes with either delays or canceled flights listed on line and at the airport.
Several pilots have also told Newschannel 3-12 some instrument landing esystem is in repair at the airport, which changes the criteria allowed for flying in and out in foggy conditions.

In the normally very busy 6 a.m. hour, the airport terminal and lobby were quiet.

The fog impacted both private and commercial flights.

Dense coastal fog is in the forecast again Friday morning.

Passenger Bill Shields came in from Las Vegas and relayed a message he had from his flight crew. "They said we were fogged in and there was some kind of equipment that was malfunctioning here at this airport."
His set back was not as much as others.
Shields said, "it was two hours for us but the flight before us, it was supposed to leave at 5:50 a.m. and it left at 11:15. I feel really bad for them."
  It's unclear which airlines were able to notify their passengers directly, but checking on line often gets you a reliable real-time answer.

 Passenger Brooke Shields said, "in hindsight, I wish we would have known when we were at the hotel because we would have stayed at the hotel  a couple of hours later and then we would have gone into the airport later and that would have been a little better."

  Each passenger that's had their flight delayed or cancelled had a different story to tell about how it's impacted them. For one man from Ventura County it's taken two days to get to Redding in Northern California.
  After two consecutive morning flights were canceled Gregg Kravitz said, "I decided the afternoon flight tends to be clearer  than the morning or evening and as you can see, 20-mile visibility. "
   One veteran who deployed multiple times to the middle east was coming to the Central Coast for a reunion.     She would have been on time to land and take a train to San Luis Obispo but the airline issue caused further travel problems when she missed the train.

 Passenger Tracy Taylor said, "and then 10:15, then 10:45 and then they said 11 and I missed my connection to get to San Luis Obispo and had to purchase something else to get there because I missed it."

     This comes at a time when the airport has been seeing a rise in its passenger count and is expected to have one of it's busiest travel years ever.

For flight information go to: Santa Barbara Airport