Seattle Storm forced to alter travel plans, drive after thunderstorm cancels flight to D.C.

The Seattle Storm had to change travel plans suddenly on Sunday and take a bus from New York to Washington, D.C., due to thunderstorms in the region.

After the Storm fell to the New York Liberty 80-76 on Saturday, they were due to fly from LaGuardia Airport to Washington, D.C., on Sunday for Tuesday’s game with the Mystics — which is part of a four-game road trip on the East Coast. That flight normally takes about an hour.

But once team staff arrived at the airport, they learned thunderstorms had canceled the flight. According to The Associated Press, the next available direct flight that could fit the entire team and traveling staff wasn’t until Wednesday. As that’s a full day after the game was set to tip, that option was out of the question. The team then looked at taking a train, but they could find only limited seat options. So that was out, too.

That sent the Storm back onto a bus they had chartered earlier in the road trip for the at least four-hour drive down to Washington.

Seattle first flew to Boston on Tuesday, and then drove two hours to Connecticut for its game against the Sun on Thursday. They then drove more than three hours to Brooklyn for Saturday’s game against the Liberty.

Thankfully, that should be the end of their bus trip. The Storm will take a chartered flight to Atlanta on Wednesday morning ahead of their matchup with the Dream that night. That marks their only back-to-back game this season — which is the only time the WNBA allows teams to take chartered flights in the regular season. That’s been a huge issue in recent years, especially when travel issues pop up and teams become stranded in airports or are forced to drive.

Phoenix Mercury star Brittney Griner, who was detained in Russia for about 10 months, was harassed in a Dallas airport last month. A YouTuber walked up to her and started asking a series of inappropriate questions before he was pushed away by security. The WNBA claims it gave the Mercury permission to fly Griner privately by herself to games due to security issues, but other reports state the league approved only a partial private flight plan. That incident, Griner said, was “rock bottom” for the WNBA’s charter flights issue.

Since then, the WNBA has allowed teams to use JSX in a limited capacity. JSX allows customers to purchase seats on smaller chartered planes, though they only offer a limited number of flight routes across the country.

Some team owners have been pushing for full chartered flights in recent years. The Liberty were fined $500,000 last season for doing so, and the WNBA even briefly reportedly considered terminating the franchise because of it. The league has said it would take about $2 million per team per season to fly charter.

The Storm enter Tuesday’s game against Washington with just a 4-14 record. They’ve lost five straight and seven of their last eight.