Winter Storm Stella’s snow accumulation predictions shut down State College airport during the morning and afternoon for Tuesday, March 14.
Source: Centre County Report Twitter
The Axle: I want the viewer to not only understand the impact of the snow storm and the flight cancellations, but I think it is important to allow the viewer to understand how the airport handles these cancellations. I think this is an interesting opportunity to be able to do a feature-like package to try to go behind-the-scenes of an airport and how they handle big snow storms, cancellations and angry passengers.
The Riders: I would talk to the person who decides which flights and when these flights are canceled. I want to understand the process of determining the if the conditions are able to be flown in. I would want to know what guidelines he or she uses in order to make this decision. I would also try to talk to regular employees who work at the departing gates. I want to hear their stories of angry passengers and how they have been trained to handle these situations. I also would try to talk to the people who are in charge of rescheduling flights and booking passengers whose flights were canceled on new flights. Finally, I would also talk to a passenger whose flight was canceled to see how he or she thinks the employees handled the situation to see if I can find follow up questions for the employees.
The Spokes: Like previously stated, I would get sound from the person who cancels the flights, the gate attendants, the committee in charge of rescheduling the flights and at least one passenger whose flight was canceled. I would get nat. sound of an airplane either taking off or landing once the flights start up again. I would also get nat. sound of passengers at the airport waiting for their flights. I could also get nat. sound of the gate attendants making announcements about flights being canceled or delayed later that evening. I would try to have a standup in an area where decisions are made to hopefully show the radar maps that are used to see the incoming weather. If I could not get there, I would try to do a standup at a gate showing the delayed or canceled sign for a flight on a sign beside me explaining how long it takes an average decision to be made of changing a delayed flight to be canceled and then how long it then takes to reschedule the flight or transfer passengers to other flights.
The Rim:
Beginning: I would begin the package showing the snow around the airport to show the total accumulation that caused the delays and cancellations. I would then explain the process of how a flight gets canceled based on my interview with the person who makes that decision. I would also explain the weather conditions in which flights can still happen compared to the conditions that cause flights to be canceled. I would then have a SOT from the person who makes the decision and have him or her explain how pressuring that job can be with lives at stake.
Middle: If given access, I would then do my standup with their equipment showing what they use to predict weather and determine cancellations. I would then transition to the gates and talk about the role of the gate attendants. With cancellations, there would be plenty of angry passengers who have expressed their anger toward these attendants, so I would have a SOT of one of them explaining a situation with an upset passenger. I would then explain the training they have to handle these situations. I would also want to know what they do during the down time of waiting around for the conditions to get better enough to have incoming and outgoing flights.
End: To end the package, I would talk about some of the common complaints passengers have when it comes to the way airports handle delays and cancellations. I would want to have responses from the employees so that people can thoroughly understand why these decisions are being made and hopefully see that trying to fly in these conditions can risk lives and they don’t just make these decisions to hurt people’s schedules. I want the bigger takeaway to be for people to understand that the airport employees are doing them a favor and should not always get the backlash they receive from upset passengers.