Sailboat delays flights at BOS; birds invade PHL

Courtesy UW Digital Collections, via Flickr Commons

In the past, flights have been delayed and airport runways closed by everything from weather, turtles on their way to lay eggs  and a flamingo named Ringo.

But on it’s Facebook page Monday, Boston Logan Airport alerted travelers that delays were being caused by a sailboat…

An unmanned 37-foot sailboat broke free from its Winthrop mooring and ran aground off Runway 27, resulting in a closure of Runway 9 for departures. As a result, planes are taking off and landing on Runway 4R and flights arriving and departing Logan may experience delays. Crews are working to free the sailboat.

An hour later, the airport posted a status update:

Runway 9 is back in use; the mast of the sailboat is no longer an obstruction to aviation.

Diversions of a different kind are now taking place at Philadelphia International Airport.

The Academy Takes Flight,” is an exhibit featuring 54 bird mounts from the ornithological collection of more than 200,000 bird specimens at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University.

Passengers can not only see the birds – they can hear them: buttons activate bird calls from 6 distinct species: the Lyrebird, Rufous Hornbill, Lesser Racket-tailed Drongo, Cooper’s Hawk, Great-horned Owl, and Laughing Kookaburra.

Find the birds on the walkway between Terminals C and D through November, 2012.

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