Denver Airport Meltdown Delays Wednesday Thanksgiving Flights

DENVER, CO – The busiest travel day of the year got even more hectic at Denver International Airport Wednesday with a series of glitches and Denver transportation accidents that caused delays. Even chocolate handed out by staff couldn’t assuage the rage as passengers waited for delayed flights to make it to their destinations for Thanksgiving.

Getting to the airport itself was delayed by two accidents that slowed travelers. First, a two semi truck crash involving a total of five vehicles around 4 a.m.blocked both lanes of I-270 for almost four hours Wednesday morning. Then a pedestrian was struck on the RTD A-Line, which goes to the airport. A man darted in front of the train, around 7:15 a.m., hoping to make it across the tracks, but was hit, and survived. Passengers heading to the airport had to exit the train and take shuttle buses around the accident scene between the Peoria and 61st/Pena stations.

When they got to DIA, passengers were presented with more delays with the people-moving trains at that airport. Sensors on the tracks failed twice during the day, which meant human drivers had to run the trains, which usually are run without engineers. As large groups gathered on the platforms, TSA closed down one security checkpoint to slow traffic to the terminals. Airlines delayed flights to help passengers make it to the gate on time to board, CBA reported. Some airline staff tried to make things better by handing out chocolate.

DIA was expecting 178,000 passengers to travel on Wednesday and more than 1 million over the entire Thanksgiving weekend.

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