HOUSTON, Texas — Pilots training for the “Wings over Houston” air show at Ellington Field, about ten miles from Hobby Airport, caused disruptions to passengers Thursday.

Jeffery Rosenberg was on a direct Southwest Airlines flight from Burbank to Houston on Thursday afternoon and was minutes away from landing in Hobby when the pilot announced a reroute due to nearby air show rehearsals.

“I thought they were joking or something very serious was going on. I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Rosenberg said he was caught off guard because he and the other passengers were not given advance notice.

“It looked really weird. We were getting ready to land, so there was kind of a lack of communication and planning,” he said.

Eyewitness News contacted Southwest Airlines to see if there was a plan for the diverted flights and if passengers were notified.

They would not answer these questions.

“Four were diverted yesterday. Considering this is less than 0.3% of our daily operations there, it is not something that requires an adjustment to the schedule,” the airline said in a statement to ABC13.

All flights eventually arrived in Houston, including Rosenberg’s, which reportedly arrived two hours late.

“I actually changed my flights from United to Southwest so I could attend this family event,” he said. “I changed a lot of plans.”

In a statement from Hobby Airport, a spokesperson said that one of the runways was under construction.

“Flights must enter and exit another runway located in the flight path of the temporarily restricted airspace while the Blue Angels conduct their business,” the spokesman said.

The airport and the airline knew this very well before these flights started.

Rosenberg is happy to be home, but thinks his disappointment could have been avoided if he had known there would be a delay.

“This is airshow practice. You’d think they’d plan for this. So there’s no doubt something went wrong somewhere,” he said.

Read Hobby Airport’s full statement:

I have learned that the FAA has issued an Art Traffic Control Advisory for today due to the Wings Over Houston Air Show being held at Ellington Airport (EFD).

For context, Wings Over Houston is a special event at EFD.

The FAA stated that rehearsals were held today at Ellington and that most flights were on wait times of about 15 minutes as a precaution.

But it appears Mr. Rosenberg’s plane may have been trying to land while the U.S. Navy Blue Angels were conducting exercise flights that involved significant but temporary airspace restrictions.

Normally, in years past, planes could still land at Hobby even though the Blue Angels or U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds were rehearsing. But one of the runways at HOU is under construction… which means flights must enter and exit another runway… which is in the flight path of temporarily restricted airspace while the Blue Angels go about their business.

Context: Ellington Airport and Hobby Airport are less than 10 miles away.

Please note that we understand and appreciate Mr. Rosenberg’s frustration, but activities occur around Hobby Airport and we must comply with FAA restrictions. It is our sincere hope that he can return to Houston safely.

Read Southwest Airlines’ full statement:

We have about 160 flights on Thursday and Friday at Houston Hobby and a total of four were diverted yesterday and all arrived later. Considering this is less than 0.3% of our daily operations there, it’s not something that would warrant an adjustment to the schedule… which would likely mean cancellation of flights.

We apologize to affected Customers for any inconvenience caused by the diversion, but our operational teams do not want to make an unnecessary decision that could result in Customers not being able to reach their destination by the end of the day.

Today/this weekend our teams will continue to tactically manage these brief disruptions.