Multiple Flights Were Diverted From Cleveland Hopkins Airport During Monday Night's Snow Storm Due to Runway Conditions

It was your typical dreaded scenario for late December travel in Northeast Ohio. As flights set off from and landed at Cleveland-Hopkins on Monday evening, a winter weather warning went into effect: roughly two inches of snow, the National Weather Service said, would cover Hopkins by the following morning.

Before midnight, at least three arriving flights were diverted—to airfields in Columbus and Detroit—due to runway safety concerns. Most passengers were not compensated for connecting flights.

Were airport snow removal crews ready?

It’s no secret that Hopkins has dealt with its series of understaffing, especially in recent years. Last December, Fox 8’s Ed Gallek discovered the airport was “short a third” of its ideal staff numbers; 10 percent of its snow equipment was down. Hopkins drew up a multi-million deal with local contractors to fill the gap.

“You know, it’s always been known that the airport’s been understaffed,” Bobby Mendel, a spokesperson for Laborers Local 860, one of two unions that Hopkins plowers pay dues to.

As for this week’s dress rehearsal for meatier, longer storms, Mendel said anything might have went wrong. “We’re not sure if it was lack of preparation, not enough snow plow trucks, not enough manpower. We’re not sure what the situation there is.”

These days, following a year-long hiring spree and recruitment fairs, Hopkins has 65 trained staff on its snow removal force, with hired contractors coming in on an at-needed basis. A typical snow event sees at least 16 to 24 operators at a time out deicing and plowing the five miles of runway needed for planes to safely take off or land. It takes about a half hour to clear.

Which, Airfield Maintenance Manager Patrick Ruedisueli told Scene, was undeniably the case on Monday.

“Staffing was not an issue [that] night,” he said. “Our equipment performed beautifully. We didn’t have anything go out of service. It was just simply the rate of snowfall. The conditions were just working against us.”

Ruedisueli offered his sympathy to the hundreds of inbound Clevelanders who had to buy extra flights home: “Hey, we don’t like to see any aircraft have to divert, but I’ll tell you right now, I’d rather see them divert than to land on an unsafe surface.”

Mendel at Local 860 had his doubts. “Yeah, but don’t they get weather reports all day long?” he said. “Shouldn’t they know what the weather is going to be like, and be prepared for it?”

A snow removal operator who works regularly at Hopkins, commenting anonymously, told Scene that crews usually have two days to prepare for an incoming storm. Workers continuously train, memorizing routes twice a week, and have been prepping since September. And “we never allow two inches of snow on the runway,” they said.

The operator theorized that understaffing played a role. Paying snow plowers a fair wage, somewhere in the ballpark of $30 an hour, would help. (Mendel suggested Hopkins workers make “around $25.” Fabrizi Trucking, Hopkins’ go-to contractor, did not respond to a call for confirmation.)

Ruedisueli, who said he was “up all night” Monday overseeing snow clearance, urged flyers to keep abreast of incoming storms, both at departure and their destination. Acts of God do happen, he said, and sometimes their effects are unforeseeable.

“And we’re not going to cut corners, we’re not going to take shortcuts,” he said. “We’re going to do everything that we can to get you home for Christmas, for the holidays. Because we have loved ones, too.”

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