Updated at 3:25 p.m. Nov. 4., 2015
A police standoff with a man accused of opening fire on patrol officers Wednesday with a high-powered rifle at a Bankers Hill apartment building disrupted operations at nearby Lindbergh Field, leading to numerous canceled and delayed flights.
A full ground stop went into effect about 10:30 a.m., a little more than an hour into the crisis in the uptown neighborhood just west of Balboa Park.
Departing flights resumed around 11 a.m., but incoming flights remained suspended due to the close proximity of the runway to the scene of the ongoing law enforcement confrontation, airport spokeswoman Rebecca Bloomfield said.
Aircraft scheduled to arrive during the standoff — which ended with the suspect’s arrest about 2:45 p.m. — either were diverted or sent into holding patterns, said Ian Gregor, a public information officer with the Federal Aviation Administration.
Flights heading to San Diego from some Western states were held on the ground at their points of departure, Gregor said.
By early afternoon, four arrivals were canceled and many more were delayed, according to airport data. Because many planes were not on hand to whisk passengers away, another 13 departures were canceled.
Passengers traveling via Lindbergh Field were advised to check with their airline on the status of flights.
Following the resumption of normal operations at the airport, there was “a lot of built-up arrival demand,” requiring flight controllers to “meter the flow” of aircraft into San Diego, Gregor said.
— City News Service