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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Cleanup on Runway 4L!

NBC New York: Travelers were delayed at John F. Kennedy Airport Wednesday morning after about 100 turtles ambled onto a runway and blocked air traffic from moving.

JetBlue first tweeted news of the slowdown, with the hashtag #cantmakethisup.

The Port Authority later confirmed that workers had to clear the notoriously slow reptiles out of the area. The turtles were mostly gathered on runway 4L, the Port Authority said.

There was no immediate word on what type of turtles they were, but if they were snapping turtles, perhaps they felt they had official clearance -- the snapping turtle was named the New York state reptile in 2006.

The runway turtles aren't the first animals to complicate air traffic at New York City airports.

The city has sought to reduce the local geese population in recent years, following the crash of U.S. Airways Flight 1549, which sucked geese into its engines and had to land in the Hudson River.

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