Planes collide, flooding and snowstorms at JFK Airport

New York, USA - January 3, 2014: Snow Blizzard in New York. JFK Airport. Service equipment is in chaos, many inches of snow appeared during night of blizzard. on background tractor with plow removing snow. Thousands of flights were cancelled and delayed because of heavy snow, all airports in New York closed.

If you’ve been too busy basking in the 40 plus degree heat in Australia to check the news, you should probably do so.

In the meantime, let us fill you in on the biggest story; there is a cataclysmic snowstorm barrelling down on the USA, with temperatures so extreme sharks have been washing up on beaches completely frozen.

In the midst of the arctic snap, airports around the country have been grappling with icy conditions and poor visibility.

New York’s JFK Airport has been hit hard by the ‘bomb cyclone’, as two planes collided on the tarmac over the weekend.

According to NBC New York, fog, ice, and general upheaval have left thousands stranded with most flights delayed.

Although things were definitely exacerbated when the right wing of a China Southern plane hit the tail of a Kuwait Airways airliner, damaging both aircrafts, according to the Port Authority.

The incident happened when the China Southern flight was being towed across the airport around midnight on Saturday.

While the China Southern flight was being moved, the plane’s right wing clipped the tail of a Kuwait Airways Boeing 777.

Luckily, no passengers were aboard the flights when the collision happened.

Kuwait Airways later explained the accident in a statement on Twitter, translated from Arabic:

“Kuwait Airways wishes to acknowledge that one of its aircraft of type B777 reserved for flight 118 (NY-Kuwait) and parked in place at the airport in New York had pranged friction by Chinese Airlines plane which caused by not being able to run for the expedition.”

Reports coming in from the JFK this morning also allude to intense flooding in the baggage claim leading to a forced evacuation.

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An “international backlog” of flights is also being reported from JFK, as intense weather conditions have lead to a “surge” in rescheduled flights that knocked out equipment at the airport, stranding several international flights and their passengers.

In a statement, The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said they are “limiting some flights into JFK” and all international arrivals into the airport’s Terminal 1.

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