ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 2, 1996 TAG: 9601020189
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MAG POFF STAFF WRITER
note: below
More than 2,000 Virginia Tech fans who flew out of Roanoke on Friday came home by bus Monday, hours late.
The operation to haul the Western Virginia bowl-goers home after Tech's victory Sunday in the Sugar Bowl fell four to five hours behind schedule because Roanoke Regional Airport was socked in all day by heavy fog.
Planeloads of football fans coming from New Orleans were diverted all day. The planes landed in Lynchburg, Charlottesville and Greensboro, airport spokesman Mark Courtney said.
The passengers were driven to Roanoke on chartered buses. Courtney said it was no mean feat for USAir to find buses, because so many of them had been chartered for Sugar Bowl trips. "It's turned into a busing operation," he said.
Some of the planes delayed takeoff at New Orleans, hoping the fog would lift by the time they arrived.
Courtney said the same planes were shuttling between Roanoke and New Orleans, flying here with passengers, then turning around and flying back to take more people home. That meant delays in the morning had a ripple effect throughout the day, he said.
Regularly scheduled flights also couldn't land, although some planes did take off. The ceiling can be lower for takeoffs than for landings.
"We were closed all day," Courtney said.
New Year's Day is not a heavy traveling day on airlines, he said; although people were waiting at the airport, there were no mob scenes.
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB