Originally Posted by
stevekstevek
I don't buy it. It's an e175, flying from Houston. Not a heavy pax load. LGA isn't that short for a regional to land (need a lot less to land than takeoff). Sounds like they were congested at LGA, and it was easier to dump their pax at JFK.
If there was some issue with flaps, hydraulics, brakes, or even just an indication that there *may* be a problem with these, you look for the safest place to land. A 14500ft runway has far more room for potential braking problems to be worked out than a 7000ft one does. Passenger convenience takes a back seat to safely landing the airplane.
Worked in system control for many years. I can't ever recall an airplane diverting to another airport just because a gate wasn't immediately available. We don't have the whole story here, but LGA has other considerations (curfew, lack of ramp space to hold) so perhaps LGA tower wouldn't let them land? Of course, there's also the whole Gov't shutdown thing going on that LGA has been in the center of. Unknown how or if that could be an issue.
DL says it was a mechanical issue, so far, there doesn't seem to be any reason to refute that. Without any contrary evidence, I'll take DL's reason over the reason allegedly said by "they".