A malfunctioning Denver International Airport concourse train sent out sparks and arcs of electricity after part of the car touched the rail Wednesday afternoon, slowing movement through DIA for nearly two hours.
Passengers posted photos of crowds packed into train waiting areas on social media and reported missing their flights, though airline officials contacted by The Denver Post did not provide an estimate of how many passengers were impacted.
The malfunction happened about 2:40 p.m. when part of a single train car came into contact with the rail, sending out “sporadic sparks” and arcs of electricity, airport spokesperson Courtney Law said in a statement.
Denver Fire Department crews responded to the airport, but smoke from the electrical discharge cleared before they arrived, Law said.
All terminal trains were stopped for roughly 20 minutes and began running at a reduced capacity as technicians repaired the damaged track, Law said. Airport crews repaired the track in just over an hour, and trains resumed running at full capacity by 4:30 p.m.
The incident caused four hours of disruptions to United Airlines operations, spokesperson Russell Carlton said in an email. Those included backed-up security lines and moving around employees to help customers, he said.
Southwest Airlines did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
There were 282 flights delayed and eight canceled at DIA on Wednesday, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware. That’s in the same ballpark as earlier in the week, when 373 flights were delayed Monday and 196 were delayed Tuesday.
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