World News
DIA train car gave off sparks and arcs of electricity after malfunctioning
A malfunctioning slow train at Denver International Airport sent out sparks and arcs of electricity Wednesday afternoon after part of the car struck the rail, delaying movement through DIA for nearly two hours.
Passengers posted photos on social media of crowds gathered in train waiting areas and reported missing their flights, although airline officials contacted by JS did not provide an estimate of how many passengers were affected.
The outage occurred around 2:40 p.m. when part of a single train car came into contact with the track and emitted “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 halted for about 20 minutes and began running at reduced capacity while technicians repaired the damaged track, Law said. Airport staff repaired the track in just over an hour and trains were running at full capacity again at 4:30 p.m.
The incident caused disruptions to United Airlines operations for four hours, spokesman Russell Carlton said in an email. That included backup security lines and relocating employees to help customers, he said.
Southwest Airlines did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
There were On Wednesday, 282 flights were delayed and eight canceled at DIAThis is reported by flight tracking website FlightAware. That is in the same range as earlier this week, when 373 flights were delayed on Monday and 196 on Tuesday.
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