Passengers were left trapped on planes as tornados ripped through Chicago in the United States (US) overnight and emergency airport sirens rang out to alert travelers.
Those stranded on the aircraft filmed Chicago O’Hare Airport (ORD) from their seats as rain and winds battered the area with reports that air traffic controllers and ground staff had been evacuated.
At around 21:20, local time, on July 15, 2024, Chicago O’Hare warned customers that severe weather was imminent, and the National Weather Service Chicago issued multiple tornado warnings.
During a live broadcast on CBS News, a 24-hour camera feed at ORD appeared to show a large tornado passing through the airport but it was subsequently established that the extraordinary weather event only passed nearby.
Durind the storms the NWS Chicago advised that it was also seeing power flashes on O’Hare and Midway International Airport (MDW) webcams.
@SpiritAirlines what is wrong w/you? You have a plane full of terrified passengers sitting on tarmac @fly2ohare during tornado warning. Our plane is shaking rocking back & forth. Air traffic control tower evacuated & airport closed. People are scared, we’re sitting ducks out here pic.twitter.com/UfSrDUjRoy
— Melanie Michael (@ChampaBayMel) July 16, 2024
Passengers that were in the airport terminals also sheltered from the storms, with one person at ORD writing on social media that a “tornado has touched down and literally here”.
Storm chaser Colin McCarthy reported that “disaster was narrowly avoided” at ORD as “dozens of airplanes carrying thousands of people sat on taxiways during a tornado warning”.
Sitting on the plane at Chicago ohare Ord as a tornado hits.
— Jollyradar 🏴☠️ (@jollyradar) July 16, 2024
Airport is shut down but won’t let us use the jetway because of lightning.
So we sit here in a tin can with wings. #ord #chicago #tornado @SpiritAirlines pic.twitter.com/4x4h5SZEo1
“Sitting on the plane at Chicago O’Hare Ord as a tornado hits. Airport is shut down but won’t let us use the jetway because of lightning. So we sit here in a tin can with wings,” a passenger stranded on a plane wrote.
Finally, at around 22:00, NWS Chicago announced that the areas of Illinois where ORD and MDW are located were “tornado warning free”.
Around 50 minutes later NWS Chicago confirmed that its area of responsibility was now completely free of tornados and severe thunderstorms but that there was “a lot of damage”.
Chicago is about to be hit by the equivalent of a Category 1 hurricane or a landphoon. pic.twitter.com/ObQ8BHRMft
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) July 16, 2024
There was speculation that the weather event would be classified as a derecho which signifies a “widespread, long-lived windstorm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms”, according to the National Weather Service.
The New York Times reported that more than 13 million people were placed under tornado warnings or watch alerts.