‘Dense’ fog cancels flights at SLO Airport, prompts weather advisory
Weather conditions in San Luis Obispo County have prompted a dense fog advisory and caused several flights out of the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport to be canceled Wednesday morning.
The National Weather Service issued a dense fog advisory in effect until 9 a.m. for the Central Coast, stating that visibility will be a quarter-mile or less in the fog.
The dense fog can make it dangerous to drive due to the low visibility, the agency said.
Five early-morning departing flights from the SLO County airport were canceled through 8:11 a.m., according to the airport’s website. Arriving flights do not appear to be impacted.
According to the United Airlines website, at least four of the flights were canceled due to “severe weather conditions.”
The cancellations happened because the planes scheduled to land and remain overnight at the airport before their morning flights were unable to land Tuesday night, according to Craig Piper, the airport’s assistant director.
A similar scenario happened last week, when flight delays and cancellations lasted for two days due to low fog.
Pilots have to be able to see the airport’s runway at a specific distance and altitude in order to land, Piper explained at the time. If a pilot can’t see the runway, they can’t land the plane.
“It’s starting to lift now, but it’s been very low this morning and it was low last night,” Piper said at about 8:20 a.m. Wednesday. “Flights that were trying to come in last night couldn’t get in; it’s the same situation as last week.”
This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 8:14 AM.
