Kennedy Int’l Airport halts flights after plane skids into snowbank

A snowplow makes its way on a slushy patch between two terminals after a Delta flight from Toronto to New York skidded off the runway into snow at Kennedy International Airport, temporarily halting all air travel into and out of the airport on Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014, in New York. AP PHOTO/KATHY WILLENS

NEW YORK—A plane skidded into a snowbank on Sunday in freezing conditions at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, which temporarily ceased operations because of the icy conditions, officials said.

The airport was closed at 8:32 a.m. (1332 GMT) after a Delta Airlines jet from Toronto slid into snow on a taxiway, officials including at the Port Authority, which manages the airport, said.

There were no injuries to the 35 people on board, according to ABC News.

The airport, which handles international and domestic flights and is one of the largest in the United States, reopened shortly before 11 am.

Many flights were delayed by nearly two hours while around 15 flights were canceled, according to the air traffic monitoring website flightaware.com.

There were also delays at the nearby LaGuardia and Newark airports.

On Saturday, a small plane made an emergency landing on a highway in the Bronx borough of New York, injuring the pilot and two passengers, as the area battled a bitter cold snap.

The United States is in the midst of a brutal cold spell that has left at least a dozen people dead and seen some of the coldest weather in two decades.