Storms' domino effect hits area flights By MARILYN KLIMEK Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- Snow and ice storms across the country Friday figured to make a long night for 24-year-old Darnell Zook of Oklahoma City.

The 1994 graduate of Northridge High School in Middlebury didn't realistically expect to arrive home from South Bend Regional Airport until early this morning. Actually, that was a best-case scenario.

"I'll miss my St. Louis connection, but I'll get there. I'll get there at some point," said Zook, who had been visiting his parents, Donna and Ray, in Middlebury since Dec. 22.

St. Louis, he'd been told, was the problem -- specifically in the form of weather delays.

Scheduled to fly TWA, Zook noted his plane coming into South Bend was delayed in St. Louis. Obviously that meant he'd be delayed leaving and likely would face even more trouble to make his connection.

Zook, a middle and high school band director, and his parents seemed to accept the news stoically.

"When you don't have anything else to do, you go eat -- whether you need to or not," said Ray Zook with a laugh.

A serious flight delay was of small concern for Steve Youngblood of Elkhart.

But then he wasn't the one scheduled to fly Delta Airlines to Atlanta and then onto Tallahassee, Fla.

"I don't mind one bit if my granddaughter gets to stay another month," he said while cuddling 3-year-old Michaela Dietz of Tallahassee in the airport terminal. The youngster was to fly home Friday night with her parents.

Steve and Suzanne Youngblood had heard there might be a mechanical problem with their granddaughter's plane as well as difficulties with weather.

The only thing that was clear was the long line at the Delta ticket counter 15 minutes after the flight's scheduled takeoff.

"You just have to take what comes your way," said Suzanne Youngblood. "But we're hoping they get a free airplane flight out of this or something."

John and Leona Rybicki were just glad to land in South Bend Friday evening.

The couple visited relatives in Cape Coral, Fla., and were planning to return home during the day Friday.

In the course of their nine-hour Northwest Airlines journey, they estimated they spent only about three hours in the air.

With Florida weather comfortable and pleasant, the South Bend couple figured they would have no problem leaving the Sunshine State.

That proved wrong when they realized their plane was late in arriving to Fort Myers, Fla., from Detroit.

Then the domino effect kicked in.

"We missed our connection and then had to wait for another connection in Detroit," said John Rybicki.

"And they kept moving us from concourse to concourse."

To add insult to injury, neither the Rybickis nor any of their fellow passengers had utensils with which to eat their in-flight meal during the first leg of the trip. Fortunately, the sandwich, cookie and bag of carrots could be easily consumed with their fingers. They had to ditch all thoughts of their salads.

"That's all we've had to eat today," Leona Rybicki said. "And I have a migraine headache because of it."

Certainly the happiest group in the airport Friday evening appeared to be those wearing gold and black.

Joan McCrady of Wakarusa and her husband, Norman Weber, were among them. They were expecting to board a chartered flight around 9:30 p.m. that would take them directly from South Bend to Ontario, Calif.

McCrady, a 1965 Purdue University graduate, was expecting to have a good time watching the Boilermakers in the Rose Bowl against Washington on Monday.

"We're not connecting to anything," said McCrady. "So we should be OK."

http://www.southbendtribune.com/stories/thisday/local.20001230-sbt-FULL-A1-Air_traffic.sto

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), December 30, 2000