Nationwide ground stop: Travelers impacted at Milwaukee Mitchell

Bill, you mentioned that it may be chaos out at Mitchell. We want to get out to Abril Preciado, who is at Mitchell right now. She's been speaking with travelers who are just stuck there at this moment. All right, Abril, what's it like out there? That's right, you guys. I mean, from the moment we came inside of Mitchell International Airport, we just started seeing lots of people walking out, many of them with obviously, you know, worry on their faces, some kind of confused about what's going on. And I have right here two travelers that tell me that they were heading over or were planning to go to Detroit. Tell me a little bit kind of what's going on right now or what you guys were told. Yeah, we just found out that there's a ground stop, and we really didn't know what to do, so we have to drive now to Detroit. Where were you guys heading to, to Detroit? We're, we're, we're We're headed to soccer games this weekend. So, yeah, we have games tomorrow morning, so we'll probably be driving through the night to get there tonight. Absolutely. So, obviously, you guys tell me that you guys were heading on a Southwest flight, right? Yeah. It was supposed to take off at what time? I think around 4.30, and it kept getting pushed back, pushed back, and then all of a sudden we saw there was a ground stop. So, our connection flight's delayed as well, but at this point we'll probably miss it, so we'll probably just head over driving. When it was announced that, you know, all flights are pretty much canceled for tonight or are not taking off, you know, what kind of went through your minds or kind of walk us through what you guys saw around you guys from other folks? Well, when we got here, obviously, there's a lot of people gathered in the terminal here and a lot of news people. I mean, like three cameras I can see right now. And... I don't know. It seems like a lot of chaos. People are leaving. Yeah, you see everybody making their way out right now versus coming in, which we'll be doing here in a few minutes. Absolutely, and I'll let you guys go in because I know you guys have a long drive, but once again, obviously, you guys are just glad that you guys are... Yeah, we're just glad we're safe, right? We'll get there safe and sound, right? Travel disruptions happen, so not a big deal. I'd rather be safe than sorry on this stuff. Absolutely. Well, thank you guys so much. And once again, you know, these are just two of the many travelers that we're seeing out here. I mean, as you guys can see, many folks are walking out, whether it be going down over here by where the parking lot is at. When we came in, we actually saw a lot of cars parked up. We kind of, like, struggled a little bit to find parking. We have a couple folks also coming in from the concourse area as well. Some other folks just sitting down kind of waiting out. Obviously, they're fighting for transportation. Upon coming out here to Mitchell International, we bumped into a group of women who tell us that they were on their way to Dallas for a wedding tomorrow. Obviously, their plans got canceled due to this. Due to this happening right now, many of them are just kind of saying that they're happy that they were in Milwaukee, that they weren't at another place where now they would have to look for a hotel or a place to stay overnight. But overall, we're just kind of feeling that lingering concern that's happening around people. Many questioning, you know, what's going on, you know, what's causing this. But I think for the most part, kind of like what we saw from both gentlemen The gentleman that we saw here a second ago, they're kind of just sharing about like the fact that either They're just feeling relief that they're safe. And so far, you know, they're at a stable place right now. But as you guys can see, you know, we just keep seeing a lot of movement from folks, obviously many of them trying to find their way out of the airport. But, yeah, we'll continue to monitor it right now. I think right now we have other people coming out. Hi there. Where are you guys coming from, if you guys don't mind me asking? Where are you guys coming from, if you guys know my name? We're coming from Texas. Oh, Texas? Yeah. And Houston. What were you guys told right now? Or was this your last stop? I'm assuming yes, right? Yeah, exactly. They just told us that we'd have to keep circling and circling and that we were in line. Hopefully we wouldn't run out of fuel. Yeah, we would get to land if we didn't run out of fuel. They were real nice about it. Yeah, so that's all we know. Of course. No, well, thank you so much. I'm sorry. I just saw you guys on the stop. Yes, yes. But once again, you know, we're just out here trying to speak to folks. Those are the lucky people. We'll continue to provide you guys with more as we get more. Those are the lucky people who landed. So they have no idea, it sounds like, what's going on because they didn't have to take off. They were already in the air. So we're seeing people landing at the airport who maybe have no idea. Why all the news crews are there? Because these people got it in the air. Yeah, and Abriel, does it seem like most people are sticking around at this point? Are they just trying to figure out what to do next? Are they leaving and going back home? What are they doing? What's the vibe? Well, right now, many folks that we, so far, people that we spoke to right here, many of them are local, so many of them are going back home to their places, to their homes, I should say. I know at least the people that I just spoke to, they tell me that they came from Texas, so I'm assuming they're finding a place around here, but it looks like Milwaukee was their destination, so they had already something secured. But again, for the most part, we've spoken to people that this is home. So, you know, We'll continue to speak to more people as we feel the area around and see where people are heading out. Once again, just a lot of movements as we're seeing many folks. I see a group of people over here. I can assume they're discussing what the next move is going to look like for them. And yeah, you know, Just a lot of movements. I'll see if we can move around over here and see if there's... Many or other people that we can speak to I see a couple of gentlemen right here on this angle. Hi there I'm so sorry to bug you guys. Uh, were you guys traveling somewhere? Yeah, we were going to Dallas, Texas to see our dad Oh, I'm so sorry So at what time was your flight supposed to 3:55, 55? Are you guys from Milwaukee or yeah? From Milwaukee, so you guys don't have to deal with or trying to find a place to stay over at night, right? No, we're having good old grandma. Shout out to grandma. She's coming to come save the day, and we're going to go grab the truck and probably just drive down to Dallas. We're driving. You guys are driving to Dallas? Oh, my goodness. We have a tee time tomorrow. Oh, okay. Golf is serious, yeah, so we got to go. Oh God, okay. Oh my goodness. When you guys heard what was happening, you know, or how did you guys find out actually? Did you guys hear an announcement or what was? Yeah, we heard the announcement on the, they were speaking it. I mean, we heard voices and people talking. We didn't know for sure, but you know, you don't want to believe it. And then so when we finally like get the like, yeah, you guys aren't flying. It's like, ah. I just want to golf, dude, you know? Of course. Of course. It's many plans that are, yes. But thank you guys so much once again. Well, safe travels since you guys are going to be driving out to Dallas. 20 hours, here we come. Of course. I'll let you guys go. Thank you guys so much. Once again, as you guys just saw, these folks right here are going to be driving to Dallas since they're not able to get on the flight. But yes, I'll send it back to you guys back in the studio. All right, Abril. Thank you. Thank you.