down. the situation made even more difficult by the rough weather that s rolled into new york yet again this morning and throughout the day. we ll continue to follow the breaking news out of out of laguardia and, tom, i think you have some more information for us? i m i m actually was talking to a colleague of minute. i m really not passing on anything new but just to reiterate for those just joining us, this was the md-88 which as you know the md-80s made my mcdonnell douglas and boeing bought mcdonnell douglas, really a workhorse aircraft incredibly reliable. the md-80 series if you will mostly flown by american airlines and delta now has some as well, but a very reliable aircraft that is really frankly neerpg the end of nearing the end of its life span with many being retired. planes have a 20 25-year life span before it s retired. an md-88 which can carry, you
braking action then the tower is advised that the pilot or the tower got this information with the pilot and then the tower passes that on and they will say delta flight whatever core braking action and so that is the two sources of information a pilot have and both come from the airport and air traffic control. this was an md-88. does not, the type of aircraft matter when it comes to the weather conditions? sure. it sure can. it also mattered with the flying skills. now, we don t know all what was going on. for example, american airlines i think flight 1421 june 1 1999 little rock arkansas standing water on the runway and they too, got no braking act action. they didn t set the spoilers that help slow the aircraft down and pilot decisions to be made whether or not you use the thrust reversers on an icy
on any information. two new definitive pieces of information, it s an md-88 aircraft and it slid off the side of the runway, slid off the side of runway 13 at laguardia airport there happening about 38 minutes ago at 11:10 a.m. eastern. mary schiavo, if you are still with us, it slid off the side of the runway. what might cause a plane to slide off the side of the runway? does that indicate it was coming in at the wrong angle? does that indicate it somehow lost control in its landing gear? it means they got no braking action. i thought that looked at the side of the runway when i mentioned that before. what that means, literally some of us have had this happen in our cars, those of us who spend some of our time up north. it s literally like in your car when you re driving and you hit a patch of ice and you lose the
what a story that is. that is it for me. i ll be back at 5:00 p.m. in the situation room for our viewers in north america, newsroom starts right now with annika cabrera. this is cnn breaking news! hello, i m annika cabrera. severe winter weather wreaking havoc across the eastern half of the country. talking snow ice, rain all causing two major travel nightmares right now. on the left side of your screen a delta jet skidding off the runway at laguardia airport and parts of the airport now closed until tonight. there on the right side of your screen you re seeing hundreds of drivers stranded on highways. this is in kentucky. i ll speak live with someone who has been trapped for more than 14 hours. first, to that delta airlines jet. md-88 skidded off the runway and harrowing end to a flight to
runway is safe to use or not. you re right. it s a very difficult situation there. everyone wants the planes to be flying. you want to get where you re headed. when the weather is bad, caution of course is necessary. that s correct. some 2,000 flights have been canceled today all the way from texas to new england. chad described the weather conditions as flash freezing. whose responsibility is it, peter? the cockpit crew or ground control, the control tower? who makes the final decision on whether it s safe to land? it s the obligation of the airport to classify and determine whether their runway is safe to land on. and then it s the responsibility of flight crew to make the decision whether they want to land or whether they want to divert. in the end, it is the captain and the aircraft s you know, his decision. but it is the airport s responsibility to evaluate their