Power Restored after Outage Impacts Flights at Denver International Airport during Spring Break Travel
By Jennifer McRae, Michael Abeyta
A power outage impacted train service to the gates as well as flights at Denver International Airport for a couple of hours on Wednesday morning. According to airport officials, the airport experienced a power incident around 9:20 a.m., which then led to a ground stop.
By 5 p.m., hours after the power was restored, 544 flights were delayed and another nine were canceled, according to flight tracking service FlightAware.
Denver International Airport officials said power was restored at 11:04 a.m., nearly two hours after the initial outage. They said that operations would return to normal and asked for patience.
Airport officials, in a statement, described it as a “widespread power incident.” Some of the airport’s power was restored quickly, but several “critical” systems remained without power for “roughly an hour,” including the airport trains that take people from the main terminal to the concourses.
Around noon, airport operations were fully back to normal, airport officials said.
According to witness accounts from inside the airport, passengers were not allowed to board waiting planes, and power outages were impacting bathroom services.
An image inside Denver International Airport during the power outage on Wednesday.
“The train was out of service and had no power. Some of the backup power was available, some things were working but a lot of things wouldn’t work. Even the intercom systems, they couldn’t make announcements, they couldn’t let people know,” Patrick Moreno, of California, told CBS News Colorado.
Denver International Airport
A ground stop also prevented any flights from landing, which was listed as an “equipment failure” on the FAA’s website. The ground stop ended at 11:30 a.m.
An employee at Denver International Airport sent CBS Colorado a photo of a line of planes waiting to get to the runway to take off after the ground stop was lifted.
A line of planes lined up to take off near a runway at Denver International Airport after a power outage on Wednesday.
Airport officials said technicians worked as quickly as possible to restore power.
“The outage originated and was isolated to one Xcel substation. Xcel Energy is conducting a full system assessment to determine the root cause. Identifying a cause could take a few days,” the airport said in a statement.
According to Xcel Energy, “crews were in the process of energizing a new transformer at a substation that serves Denver International Airport when a piece of equipment shut off, causing the substation to lose power.”
Xcel said the airport is served by two substations. The utility company said the other substation was not impacted and was able to partially serve the airport throughout the event.
The cause of the outage remains under investigation, according to Xcel.
At the airport, passengers must board a train to get to their gate in concourses A, B or C. Passengers departing from gates in the A Concourse may walk to their gate from the Jeppesen Terminal, bypassing the train service.
The power outage comes during a period when there are more travelers at the airport for spring break. There are also some issues with long lines at security checkpoints across the U.S. due to TSA workers not being paid during a partial government shutdown.
According to airport officials, between last weekend and the upcoming weekend, there could be more than 80,000 people a day passing through Denver airport security, an increase attributed to spring break travel.
“DEN continues to explore alternative energy solutions via a request for information (RFI) from the private sector so that we can ensure greater redundancy and meet our growing energy needs,” airport CEO Phil Washington said in a statement on Wednesday.
An image from inside Denver International Airport during a power outage on Wednesday.
The airport urges travelers to arrive at least two hours before their flight departs at all times, regardless of the time of year. Travelers can check current wait times at FlyDenver.com.
Troy Domier’s flight was postponed until early Thursday morning. He says between this and TSA workers not being paid, he thinks it’s time for passengers to speak up to lawmakers.
“I’ll be honest, one of my first things is I don’t call my congressman. I don’t call my senator, but I should. Everyone should, you know, to stop this,” said Domier.
Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/power-outage-train-gates-denver-international-airport-spring-break-travel/