A flooded terminal at New York JFK airport compounded chaos for a third consecutive day on Sunday with passengers stranded by delays and cancellations blamed on a deadly winter storm.
Arrivals were significantly disrupted into Terminal Four at the airport after a water pipe broke.
Water poured from the ceiling and the arrivals area was submerged by around three inches of water, CNN footage showed.
Terminal Four is used by more than 30 airlines, including Virgin Atlantic and partner Delta Air Lines, Air India, Egyptair, El Al, Emirates, Etihad, KLM Royal Dutch, Singapore Airlines and Virgin Atlantic.
“What happened at JFK Airport is unacceptable,” admitted Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is responsible for area airports.
“We will hold those responsible accountable for any shortcomings we find.”
The cause of the break appeared to be “weather-related” but would be investigated, as would why the pipe had not been weather protected and whether other failures contributed to the disruption, officials said.
After the pipe broke and water began flooding the terminal, power to the affected areas was shut off for safety reasons, officials said.
Domestic arrivals and departures, and international departures operated with delays. A string of international flights were diverted to other airports or terminals.
Tempers flared for days among exhausted travellers, forced to sleep on the floor of terminals, with others stranded on aircraft for hours waiting to access a gate and massive delays in baggage claim, according to the AFP news agency.
Terminal One was briefly closed on Saturday resulting in 94 flights being cancelled and 17 diverted, as the extreme cold and storm recovery “created a cascading series of issues,” said the Port Authority.
The US East Coast has been gripped by days of record-breaking cold temperatures after a storm dubbed a “bomb cyclone,” which was blamed for at least 22 reported deaths.
Boston, which saw some of the heaviest snow, froze with a Sunday morning low of minus 19C — matching the previous January 7 record in 1896.
Highs below freezing lingered on the east coast as far south as North Carolina, with temperatures due to rise from today.
Virgin Atlantic said: “The adverse weather conditions in New York JFK have caused disruption to many of our flights.
“Please check flight status before you travel to the airport. If your flight has been cancelled, please do not travel to the airport.”
British Airways said flights to and from the region are being affected by the severe snow storms.
The worst affected airports are New York JFK and Boston, which have both been closed at various points at the height of the storm.
“We are sorry for the disruption to your travel plans and are doing all we can to minimise the effect the poor weather is having on our US operations,” the airline said.
“We will look to use larger aircraft where we can to help accommodate extra customers who have not been able to travel due to the bad weather.”