Overview
- Port Authority crews discovered a sinkhole near Runway 4/22 during the daily airfield inspection and shut the runway at about 11 a.m. Wednesday to begin emergency repairs.
- Emergency construction and engineering teams are on site and the Port Authority is coordinating with airlines while the FAA is slowing arrivals into LaGuardia to manage traffic on the remaining runway.
- Flight-tracking services and airlines reported hundreds of disruptions, with roughly 200 cancellations and a similar number of delays logged by mid‑evening as operations were consolidated onto Runway 13/31.
- Officials have not yet determined the sinkhole’s full size or cause, no injuries were reported, and forecast thunderstorms are expected to complicate repair work and restore normal schedules.
- Loss of one of LaGuardia’s two primary runways underscores the airport’s fragility and follows recent regional subsidence and a March runway collision, raising questions about local ground conditions and repair timelines that could stretch from hours to days.