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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City International Airport saw significant flight delays this morning thanks to thick fog and smog and generally poor visibility as a result of the inversion.
According to a website of the Federal Aviation Administration, arriving flights at the airport were delayed by as long as 45 minutes Tuesday morning.
"I looked out the window and thought, I don't even know where we're at," said Tina Stroh, a traveler from the San Francisco area. "People were getting nervous — they were getting up, moving around which made it even worse."
Airport spokesperson Barbara Gann said the conditions impacted departing flights as well.
"We had to slow down activity on the air field," Gann said. "Aircraft needed to be towed by vehicles and the runways are tightly controlled so it just slowed everything down."
Gann said de-icing also factored into the delays.
The arriving and departing challenges made a busy situation at the airport even busier. Flights were delayed and cancelled to some eastern destinations because of winter weather, Gann said, and numerous people were arriving Tuesday for the Sundance Film Festival and the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market.
Gann said the delays happen regularly during this time of year, but the situation became more pronounced because the fog created troubles later in the morning than normal.
Because the process was expensive and its necessity was lessened by airplane technology, airlines elected to stop fog-seeding at the airport years ago, officials said.
With no storms predicted in the near future to clear out the air, Gann predicted more delays in the mornings and evenings in the days to come.
