Was on flight coming into EWR this evening. Very windy and few aborted landing attempts then eventually announced we were diverted to LGA that they are diverting all the planes out. But I could not see anywhere that EWR is indeed closed or having major problems. When we landed at LGA pilot said someting about our aircraft not being able to withstand the crosswinds at EWR (was a 738). Are different aircraft more tolerable of wind conditions? Or were there likely other reasons for diversion?

Operations Summary

As of 5:26 p.m. Central, Sat., Apr. 16, 2011

RAIN & GUSTY WINDS: CLEVELAND & WASHINGTON D.C(DCA-METRO).

REDUCED VISIBILITY, RAINY & GUSTY WINDS: WASHINGTON D.C.(IAD), CHICAGO(ORD).

LOW CEILINGS & GUSTY WINDS: NEWARK-LIBERTY & NEW YORK-LA GUARDIA.

LOW CEILINGS: SAN FRANCISCO

Airport Average Delay Reason
NEW YORK (NEWARK LIBERTY) 286 Minutes GUSTY WINDS
PHILADELPHIA 116 Minutes GUSTY WINDS

Looks ok, the flights from SFO were late, but not too bad.

I live about 29 miles from EWR and I can tell you it is really horrible out. Heavy winds and driving rain.

Ditto for the dc area today. I have received multiple notices about delays at both iad and dca

I was listening to JFK Tower on liveatc.net around 6pm and there were about 4 missed/cancelled approaches in the course of an hour.

There's was a Tornado warning here in Brooklyn but it is not over. Windy and rainy still.

I counted three aborted approaches - no explanations were given except once when the captain said we were too close to the plane ahead of us. I wondered if we were just running out of fuel (plane was from SAN) so they had to get us down somewhere.

Looks like this flight diverted to LGA was only one of quite a few diversions. I've compiled the following flights bound for EWR this evening, which were diverted. It appears a number have since continued onward to EWR, but some still remain at the diversion airport.

Judging by the number of flights from Spanish-Speaking origins which diverted to Syracuse, I wonder if perhaps they had staff which spoke spanish, or if it was just a coincidence.

Not sure if any of these flights actually deplane into the terminal, but for those who diverted to Newburgh, there is but a small newsstand after security.



BOS
-----
103 - 757 from Amsterdam


BWI
-----
1897 - 737 from Montego Bay


PIT
----
519 - 737 from Tampa


PHL
-----
860 - 737 from St. Maartin


CLE
----
429 - 737 from Denver


ABE
-----
2579 - ERJ from Charlotte
2682 - ERJ from St Louis


BUF
-----
50 - 737 from Cleveland


LGA
-----
1827 - 737 from San Diego


SYR
-----
1733 - 757 from Cancun
804 - 737 from San Pedro Sula
1742 - 737 from Mexico City
210 - 757 from Houston


SWF (Newburgh, NY
-----
1761 - 737 from San Jose Costa Rica
86 - 777 from Shanghai
1866 - 757 From Punta Cana
1551 - 737 From Cozumel
800 - 737 From Ft Lauderdale
449 - 737 From San Francisco

wow...in that case I am very lucky as my trip terminated in NYC so I was able to deplane. It seems most of these flights have still not made it to EWR and they ended in locations where deplaning may not be reasonable option for many. There were many with international connections on my flight but clearly they will be stranded in EWR tonight, whenever they get there. Also for those who deplaned at LGA, they said they would not be removing any checked baggage from the AC but fortunately I had no checked bags.

How come ours and not more aircraft diverted to LGA? It was windy there too but not so bad.

LGA has limited capacity, if there was more fuel in the tank, the flight would be sent further away. 1 - better chance of non-issue landing if they can get outside the weather bands; and 2 - plenty of capacity to be shared, and they can refuel wherever they end up.

Winds were very strong out of the SE yesterday. Both JFK and LGA have runways that run SE - NW (13-31). EWR does not, which could explain the diversions. However, JFK had a bunch of diversions last night as well...

I went to EWR last night to pickup a friend coming in on UA from ORD. As soon as I got there I saw the flight had diverted to MDT--it was ultimately cancelled. I should have known something was up when I was getting off I-78 and saw a BA 777 fly over my head and land on little rwy 11.

Must say I would never expect a flight to divert from as close as EWR to LGA. Usually LGA is the one diverting due to wind.. Think I get diverted from LGA to BWI at least once a year for winds.
That is indeed a strange twist. Guess it must be the fuel and the directions of runways as previous poster(s) mentioned.