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JFK water main break at Terminal 4 causes further flight delays

Passengers exit after a water main ruptured in Terminal 4 at JFK airport, Sunday, Jan. 7.
Passengers exit after a water main ruptured in Terminal 4 at JFK airport, Sunday, Jan. 7. Photo Credit: Newsday / Matthew Chayes

Things are only getting worse at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

A water main break at Terminal 4 was causing further flight delays, the airport tweeted on Sunday. It’s the latest of a slate of service failures since Thursday’s powerful snowstorm crippled flights into and out of the airport, leading to major delays and crowded tarmacs and terminals.

The pipe burst because of the frigid temperatures near the Central Diner restaurant in the arrivals area, an airport official said. Workers struggled to turn off the water from the cracked pipe because it broke near the handle, the official said.

Hours later, airport employees had started to open up sections on the other side of the terminal, but the official said normal operations were not expected to fully resume until Monday morning.

Customers complained both Friday and Saturday that they waited as many as six hours on the tarmac before their planes docked at a gate and as many as eight hours to collect their baggage from carousels. Others awaiting a departure spent the night sleeping on terminal floors, photos showed.

Among the 1,008 arrivals and departures on Saturday, there were 94 canceled flights, the agency said on Sunday.