Travel

Harsh winter weather was being blamed for a 100-car pileup near Grand Rapids, Michigan that forced police to shut down Interstate 196 in both directions for hours, the local NBC affiliate WOOD reported.In addition to lake effect snow, the next clipper system will dive out of Canada on Tuesday and bring a round of snow to the Dakotas, Minnesota (including light amounts for Minneapolis) and Iowa. On Wednesday, the same clipper will zip across the Great Lakes (bringing light snow for Chicago) in the first half of the day, then bring some snow to the interior Northeast and New England by the second half. While the cold and snow in the first half of this week will make for wintry scenes, the snow totals will not be blockbuster and the cold not record-setting.The next round of cold and potent...

Nearly 90 people aboard a Holland America cruise liner based in Florida suffered "symptoms of gastrointestinal illness" from a norovirus outbreak, forcing a "comprehensive sanitization of the ship," officials said Sunday.The Rotterdam had pushed out of Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 28 before returning on Friday, ending a journey that sickened 81 of the ship's 2,593 passengers and eight members of the 1,005 crew, Holland America and CDC said."During its previous voyage, a number of guests onboard Rotterdam reported symptoms of gastrointestinal illness. The cases were mostly mild and quickly resolved," according to the cruise line's statement. "The health of our guests and crew is a top priority and consistent with CDC protocols, we conducted a comprehensive sanitization of the ship when the cr...

A shark ripped the arm off a Minnesota woman in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Thursday before she died a short time later from those horrific wounds, officials said.St. Croix first responders were called at about 4:28 p.m. AST with reports of "a female who was suspected to be bitten by a shark at Dorsch Beach," according to a Virgin Islands Police Department statement.Firefighters "confirmed that the female lost an arm during the attack" and she "later succumbed to her injures," police said.The victim was identified as 56-year-old Arlene Lillis of Lake Detroit, in northwest Minnesota near the border of North Dakota.“Our hearts are with the family and loved ones of the victim, and with everyone who witnessed this tragedy," U.S. Virgin Islands Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. said in a statement. “We...

Cold, wintry weather and strong winds are expected in large parts of the country Wednesday as millions hit the roads and take to the skies ahead of Thanksgiving.Up to 2 feet of snow is set to to hit the Upper Midwest and 52 million people are under wind alerts from the Plains to the Great Lakes and into the Appalachians, including in major cities such as Chicago and Detroit. For the areas under these alerts, gusts are forecast to be as high as 60 mph. Blizzard warnings are in place for parts of northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and areas east of lakes Erie and Ontario are under lake-effect snow warnings.A major lake-effect snowstorm is expected through Saturday, in which snowfall rates of 1 to 2 inches per hour, combined with wind gusts stronger than 30 mph, will l...

A Southwest Airlines pilot, pulled out of a cockpit and arrested on allegations that he tried to fly while impaired, blamed nicotine pouches when police told him he smelled of alcohol, according to law enforcement video released on Thursday.David Allsop was minutes away from going wheels up at the helm of Flight 3772 out of Savannah/Hilton Head International Airport, bound for Chicago Midway, when airport police confronted him on the jet bridge at Gate 2 at about 6 a.m. on Jan. 15, according to a Chatham County Police Department report.David Allsop.Chatham County Police Dept.When asked if he’d been drinking recently, Allsop said “10 hours ago” he had had “a few beers,” police body camera footage showed.“Define a few beers?” officer Josiah Best asked.“A few beers,” the pilot responded.“D...

Southwest Airlines and its pilots’ union have reached a new preliminary labor agreement, ending months of tense negotiations and becoming the last of the largest U.S. airlines to strike a deal that is set to give aviators big raises.The five-year deal is worth about $12 billion, Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, told CNBC on Tuesday. The union didn’t immediately provide details about pilot pay increases.The company’s pilots will need to approve the preliminary contract. CNBC reported earlier this month that the two sides were close to a deal.American, United and Delta pilots finalized deals earlier this year that were worth billions and gave aviators double-digit pay hikes. The Covid-19 pandemic derailed negotiations across the industry.As travel dema...